2705, Resource, GPB Podcast, Episode 106: Love Letter To Writing: Tips And Strategies For Integrating Writing Across The Curriculum

This podcast presents Amy Mengwasser interviewing Dr. Rebecca Harper, the author of Content Area Writing that Rocks and Works  and Write Now & Write On, Grades 6-12: 37 Strategies for Authentic Daily Writing in Every Content Area.

Writing Across the Curriculum, that's really what we're going to be getting into today. And I think writing across the curriculum described another way is writing in every content area or content area writing, which sets up my first question. In a nutshell, Dr. Harper, can you help us define content area writing? What is it?

Rebecca Harper: Well, I think the best thing to say about content area writing is that we want our students to be able to see that we read and write in a number of disciplines. And a lot of times we typically push that off to the ELA folks and say, I'm not a reading teacher, I'm not a writing teacher. But if you teach, you're a reading teacher and you're a writing teacher. But the way that we look at reading and writing in social studies and in math and in science is a little different than we do in ELA. So when we're talking about writing engagements in content areas like those subjects I mentioned, much of the writing that we do is going to help our students process, think through material, and help them digest that difficult content.