This resource explores instructional practices for incorporating formal writing into English language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies instruction.
This resource uses original content from the Texas Adolescent Literacy Academies: Focus on Writing (TALA Writing) professional development. Any handout numbers in this resource refer to the original TALA Writing handouts.
Download and print the handout packet for this resource by clicking the button below.
Formal writing includes both literary and informational texts, such as biographies, essays, summaries, analyses, articles, and reports. Content area teachers who explicitly teach (by modeling and thinking aloud) how to read and write different types of formal texts improve their students' overall comprehension and content learning. For example, a history teacher modeling how to read and write an expository essay enhances students' ability to comprehend the genre's text structures (e.g., concept and definition, cause and effect, problem and solution, sequence) when reading their textbooks.
Locate the Incorporating Formal Writing in the Content Areas handout from the handout packet.
Read the handout. Then, place a checkmark beside the writing activities on page 2 that you already incorporate in your content area instruction.