Complete Coverage

Writing Undergoes Renaissance in Curricula

Diana Leddy works with kindergartners and 1st graders at the Blue School to complete writing, reading, and drawing exercises using scenes from the Dr. Seuss book The Lorax . Built in 1858, the one-room schoolhouse in Landaff, N.H., is using the book as a way to fuse lessons in writing and reading.

—John Tully for Education Week

Its ascent stems from the common core, college feedback, and new research

By Catherine Gewertz

Teachers are focusing on writing instruction like never before. More and more, they're asking students to write about what they read, helping them think through and craft their work, and using such exercises as tools not only to build better writers, but to help students understand what they're studying.

The shift is still nascent, but people in the field are taking notice. It marks a departure from recent practice, which often includes little or no explicit writing instruction and only a modest amount of writing, typically in the form of stories, short summaries, or personal reflections, rather than essays or research projects on topics being studied.

In Oak Park, Mich., high school students are reading and rereading texts, taking notes on different features and levels of meaning each time, to inform their reading and discussion as well as the writing they will...