Now, I could easily teach a History class where the student does not have to write anything. They could memorize important dates and people. I can give a multiple choice test. The World would be a better place for some high school students. But that doesn’t teach anything. History is understood best when you think about the “when,” the “why,” and the “how,” together. And what better way to show the understanding than by writing a paper about it?
History papers can take the form of analysis papers, argumentative essays, persuasive essays, cause and effect essays, compare/contrast essays, narrative and descriptive essays; the list goes on. Sounds a lot like an English class doesn’t it (but more awesome, because they talk about History)? Now I don’t know about today’s students, but when I was in high school, if my American History teacher asked me to write an argumentative essay on “Why the South Seceded,” I would look at him/her like they just sprouted wings and were about to fly around the room. As a student, when I walked out of English class, that was it. My “mindset” for English stayed in that classroom. This exact reason is why all teachers should know how to “teach writing” (It’s one of the reasons that I took this class).
Writing is an inter-disciplinary tool. I should be on the same “bandwagon” that English teachers are on when it comes to using the tools that they have to assist in the teaching of it. It’s not fair to the student for me to assign a cause and effect essay, and not tell them how that should be accomplished. I can also incorporate some “low stakes/no stakes” writing in my class, as well, because these types of assignments would get the students thinking about the subject at hand.
As we have learned in class (or maybe always suspected), writing is one of the most important things that we can get our students to do. Now if we could just get the “hard” sciences involved…
Mack Strickland