WAC / WTL / WTC

Before reading Susan McLeod's essay, I had only a very vague notion about what writing across the curriculum was all about. My simple understanding of this pedagogy was based on attending a couple of meetings with high school English teachers who were discussing how they might start working with teachers in other disciplines to address issues with student writing. The discussions made sense to me at the time. Who better to work with fellow teachers to address student writing problems than teachers who teach writing? However, as I read the WAC article, I learned how little I actually knew about this pedagogy.

Writing-to-Learn
That writing can be used as a tool to help students learn is an under-statement. Through writing, “students explore and assimilate new ideas, create links between the unfamiliar and the familiar, mull over possibilities, explain things to the self before explaining them to others” (152). While writing-to-learn assignments may take a variety of forms, the most common is journal writing. Journals provide a way for students to informally record what they’ve learned about a subject. McLeod explains that WAC write-to-learn assignments have two major characteristics. The assignments must be student centered and promote active learning and critical thinking. They must also be reflective in nature. It is the reflective nature of journals that provides the teacher insight to student learning. Writing-to-learn assignments are never graded. The role of the teacher in these assignments is that of coach or facilitator.

Writing-to-Communicate
Writing-to-communicate assignments focus on writing to an audience in order to inform. These assignments are crafted and polished pieces of work. They are reader based rather than writer based, and use the formal language of the discipline involved. Since different disciplines have their own writing conventions, the role of the teacher in these assignments is focused on “helping students learn the discourse of the discipline” (154). Writing-to-communicate is also referred to as writing-across-the disciplines (WID).

Conclusion
I’m not sure how the group of teachers I observed resolved their problem. My wishful thinking now is that had I stuck around a little longer, I possibly could have seen this pedagogy take shape in a high school setting. I’ve never taught K-12, but after reading McLeod’s article, I’m even more convinced that WAC is a good idea.