Interdisciplinary Opportunities
Finding Connections from Language Arts
Teachers discover how to apply the Hands-On Process-Writing technique across all disciplines.
In this epilogue to the Hands-On Process-Writing series, teachers can take the next step using the Hands-On Process-Writing technique across all disciplines. Background on the Hands-On Process-Writing technique can be found in the first article.
In this article, innovative brain-based ideas will be explored that can help bright, advanced or gifted and talented students gain some fresh perspectives by using higher-order thinking skills and abstract thinking on how to write in multiple styles and genres – including expository essays, narratives, creative, poetry, persuasive, literary analysis, cause and effect and many others.
Other Curricular Applications
Does this mean then that we can only use this technique when doing formal expository writing? No, because the idea behind the procedure is to have the students organize their thoughts to find their own “connections,” and this will work as well in Science, or 7th grade art class as it will in AP English Literature!
For example, does this process work for creative writing? Yes - use the same steps up to the “fill-in-the-outline” section. Then, think of a new outline form. Return to Step Four, and draw three circles around the center Hub at 2:00, 6:00, and 10:00 and draw temporary lines from these circles to the Hub. Then, if students are writing a story, the Hub could be the main plot development in the rising action, with the three main Ideas being significant plot points, setting, theme, dialogue or setting depending on what students value in a story. If students are writing a poem, the Hub could be your theme and the three main Ideas could be the tone, meaning, speaker, diction, or imagery depending on what students value in a poem. If your students are writing a science lab report, the Hub could be the hypothesis and the three main Ideas could be the procedure, equipment, variables, materials, safety precautions, observations, or results depending on the nature of the lab. If your students are writing a speech, the Hub could be the focal issue and the three main Ideas could then support the speaker's posture.
Different tasks call for different tools. When helping the students of the new millennium learn to appreciate writing in each of their classes we need to add some new tools to the shed. By appealing to students’ differentiated learning styles and modalities, we can help them reach goals that before only ended in frustration and fussing, much like the way creating thesis statements used to be!
References:
Buzan, Tony. (1986) Make the Most of Your Mind (Reissue). New York: Simon & Schuster
Parker, Douglas. (2001) Basic Public Speaking, 2nd Edition. Philadelphia: Xlibris, Random House Ventures
Warriner, John E. (1977) English Grammar and Composition – Third Course. Chicago: Harcourt, Brace, and Jonanovich
