Ideas on how to create sessions about writing and finding common ground with other subjects as well. Writing can be truly across curriculum!

1. Writing Across the Curriculum
presentation by Annabel Desira

2. Look at the following slides …
Keep in mind that these will be used as
a writing prompt.

3. Let me think …
Sometimes I feel that I miss a
piece or two …
I feel frustrated when I cannot
see a clear link.
I feel the need to keep digging
for an answer …
an answer that might help me
understand.
an answer that might feed this
hunger, this thirst, this craving
for knowledge.

4. I look into the darkness and
suddenly I am no longer afraid.
I think about my joyful
childhood. And I cannot stop
from thinking about my
grandparents. They were my
teachers too.
I remember my grandpa cutting
out large pictures from
magazines, gluing them to
cardboard and cutting them into
different jigsaw shapes.
I remember I would play for ages
just by knowing that I have a
special jigsaw puzzle made with
love by my grandpa.

5. And I cannot help but think about my
schooling days. There I had different
jigsaw puzzles too.
Most of them were educational.
Sometimes, I was learning numbers.
At other times, I was learning
colours.
Well, I was also learning how to
share, how to wait for my turn and
much more.
And I also started to realise that
sometimes I just couldn’t find the
missing piece.

6. But what an immense joy when I did
find that missing piece!
Sometimes, some naughty boys hid
the pieces on purpose.
Other times, some pieces would
have been lost.
Sometimes you could still assume
what the picture was going to be like
but that missing piece just doesn’t
let you finish the task.
Missing pieces as the name
suggests are simply “missing” and I
recall feeling sad … and wondering
where these pieces might have gone!

7. From fairytales to realities!
Schooling days are now just a mere
memory but loaded with so many
emotions.
I find I still love puzzles up to this
very day.
I see puzzles everyday in every
shape or form.
Some pictures I have completed.
Others are still in the making.

8. Are there any puzzles that you would like to talk about?
There are no rules for this journal writing …

9. Sharing Time

10. Writing activities
that are inculcated
in the hidden and
non hidden areas of
the curriculum.
A kind of writing that
inspires us to go beyond
the books we love to read.
A writing that
links us to the
world we live in.

11. Because all teachers teach WRITING!
"When we integrate writing into content areas
there are two main goals. First, integration
helps to reinforce the concepts, and, second,
it helps improve students' writing abilities."
(Shelley Peterson, Writing Across the Curriculum:
Because All Teachers Teach Writing. Portage &
Main, 2005)

12. Because teachers want “cross
boundaries learning” to happen!
"WAC pedagogies allow students to cross boundaries
between textbook learning and practical application,
between content mastery and disciplinary discourse, and
between rhetorics of action and life experiences.
Research shows that WAC pedagogies and the writing
asssignments they generate increase student
engagement with the thought patterns and practices of a
discipline."
(Joyce Magnotto Neff and Carl Whithaus, Writing Across
Distances & Disciplines: Research and Pedagogy in
Distributed Learning. Taylor & Francis, 2008)

13. Questions to ponder about …
Do we teach this particular part of the
syllabus and we are fine with that?
Is there the need to see the bigger
picture? Why?
Why is linking with the outside world
essential especially for children?
Do you envisage any overlaps in the
syllabus/curriculum as it is?

14. Think of a particular lesson
that you’ve already delivered!
What was it about?
Were you teaching any other concepts in
the process?
Was there any occurred learning that
might not have been “planned”?
Are we allowing space for “what may
come”?
Any advantages/disadvantages about this
pedagogical method?

15. Teaching is finding links to make jigsaw
puzzles complete …
How can we incorporate the teaching of
writing in Mathematics, in Science etc.?
Are there any topics that we might team
teach?

16. Puzzled about Teaching and Learning?
Teaching is finding links to make jigsaw
puzzles complete …
Successful Teaching empowers learners to
find new puzzles to complete …

17. If you need to contact me …
Annabel Desira
Parental Empowerment Programmes’ Co-ordinator at FES
(Foundation for Educational Services)
Email Addresses :
annabel.desira@gov.mt
annabeldesira@gmail.com
Tel : 21455600/7 ext. 115
Mob : 79 38 42 42
I might help you find a
missing piece or two!