Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) is an approach that attempts to weave writing assignments throughout all content areas. Writing takes place in within a genre.

Genre is a recognized category of works that share a common form, purpose or content. As a writer, it is important to understand what these commonly shared attributes are for each of the different genre.

Descriptive Genre- the goal of this genre is to describe a person, place or thing in vivid detail.

Expository Genre- the goal of this genre is to give information such as an explanation or directions

Narrative Genre -the goal of this genre is to tell a story of an experience, event, or sequence of events while holding the reader's interest.

Persuasive Genre -the goal of this genre is to give an opinion in an attempt to convince the reader that this point of view is valid or tries to persuade the reader to take a specific action.

Poetry Genre- the poetic writing is a written art form that helps the writer express an imaginative awareness and arranged to create a specific emotional response sometimes employing the use of repetition, meter, and rhyme.

Technical Genre-the goal of technical writing is to clearly communicate a select piece of information to a targeted reader or group of readers for a particular purpose in such a way that the subject can readily be understood. It is expository writing that requires a response from the reader.

Rubrics are a great way for students to self assess and for the teacher to formatively assess different writings projects.  Rubrics also provide clear criteria for evaluating writing on a continuum of quality.

Examples of Writing Rubrics:
Expository Rubric

Persuasive Rubric

Literary Response Rubric

Reflective Writing

What are strategies that I can use that improve reading and writing across the curriculum.

Anticipation Guides Improve Reading-Create a series of generalized statements related to a passage of text. Prior to reading, ask students to write down each generalization (see the download) and indicate their level of agreement or disagreement with the generalization. As students read the passage, they should take notes on the issues presented by the generalizations. After reading, students should evaluate their original marks to determine if their level of agreement or disagreement has changed. Follow the anticipation guide with an explanatory writing or discussion activity.

Postcard Geography- Have your students send and receive postcards to and from participating schools.Check out this site to register. The postcards can be posted on maps hung in the classroom for students to use while finding the locations of the other schools.

Veteran’s Day Letters to Vets- Students connect with today's veterans. Contact your local VFW or VA hospital and have them hand out letter and pictures your students have made for the local veterans.

Reader’s Theater - Fluency with struggling readers can improve with type of activity. Reader's theaters gives an occasion where students practice and reread rhymes, stories, poems, songs, monologues, dialogue or scripts throughout the week and then perform them at the end of the week.

Pumpkin Characters- Enjoy the fall with this wonderful literature project. Each student reads a book independently. The main character is recreated by using a pumpkin. Have the students select a pumpkin (one they can carry) and decorate it (not carve it) to resemble the main character in their book.

Poetry Calendar-  Research famous poets to create a school year calendar. Students will research five famous poets born in a particular month, read 1-2 poems by each poet while illustrating each poem.

"Do not be discouraged by what you do not know — but be encouraged by what you can learn." — Unknown

There is always something new or a twist to something old going on in a creative classroom. Sometimes it is only a small thing that is new, but this twist or variation is all that is needed to create an entirely fresh experience. It may not be possible to reinvent the wheel, but we can think of new and interesting ways to roll it.-Fred Carrington, 1996 ATA Honoree in Science- American Teacher Awards (ATA)

Theory of Creative Activities

A truly creative teacher forms partnerships with students, with everyone seeking learning adventures where discoveries and insights await…Creative teachers break boundaries.- Ray Lund

EQ: Where can I find  activities thatn  promote creative thinking?

Crayola Creativity Central

The Creative Classroom

Creative Drama Lesson Plans

Gateway to Educational Materials

The Learning Page.

Lateral Thinking Puzzles

A visitor to a creative classroom is often struck by the level of excitement and student engagement. What is more important is that it also fosters a joy of learning that provides an internal motivation for learning. Students are generally engaged and are using Project-Based Learning .

 The Project Approach is an instructional strategy that challenges students to discover answers to their questions through real world investigations.

GoCreate.com – comprehensive web site onthe subject of creativity

SuperKids Games of Logic and Reasoning -   SuperKids has created a small collection of classic mind-challenging games that focus on spatial reasoning and strategy. They're fun, they're addictive, and best of all, they're free!

Professor James Gee kicked off the 4th Games, Learning, and Society Conference in Madison, Wisconsin with a talk entitled “Beyond Games & the Future of Learning”, citing titles from Portal to World Of Warcraft to explain why games are uniquely suited to create 'passion communities' where learning can thrive.
Gee is Professor of Literacy at Arizona State University and the author of 'What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy' (2003) and 'Why Video Games Are Good For Your Soul' (2005).  Gee sees the current U.S. educational system as inadequate to the task of addressing the problems of an increasingly complex world. He stated that “21st century learning must be about understanding complex systems,” and he believes many video games do a better job at this than the antiquated sender-receiver teaching model that dominates American classrooms.

"It's been proven time and again that children retain more information when they're stimulated by and actively involved in the learning process.  Interactive teaching has become increasingly popular and new tools and ideas for enhancing lesson plans are appearing every day.  A great way to get your students interested in learning is to bring the fun back into it by using educational games." Taken from Computers in the Classroom, Volume 1, Number 4, Aug. 2000

The Games To Teach project, an interdisciplinary collaboration of faculty, staff, and students across the humanities, sciences, and engineering disciplines, has developed a series of conceptual prototypes for "games-to-teach" science and engineering subjects at the advanced high school and introductory college level.

 A rules set, pedagogic information, and card design directions for Rocks and Minerals Solitaire (more info)

Disaster Dynamics (more info) hosts a collection of games dealing with disasters and human responses to them. Many of them are still in development.
Wheel of Geology -This quiz game is intended to help students review for an upcoming exam. Topics of questions are randomly determined by spinning a wheel. Teams answer questions using electronic CPS handhelds.

Whose Fault Is It Anyway? -This game has students simulate the propagation of P and S waves after an earthquake and to use the lag between these to determine where in the simulation the earthquake occurred.

Rock/Mineral Scavenger Hunt -Take students into the field and give each team a list of rocks or mineral types you want found and brought back within the time limit.

Other Game Based Learning Sites:

Virtual Frog Builder Game

FunBrain

 Puzzlemaker

A blog about games:
14 Educational Games to Teach Your Kids About Business