Time’s Up: How to Stop Running out of Time for Writing Across the Curriculum

In this article, the author discusses how to stop running out of time for writing across the curriculum and features the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory that helps low-performing schools improve writing by incorporating writing instruction across the curriculum. The Southwest Educational Development Laboratory's systemic work to improve low-performing schools uses a sustained, collaborative model that supports a schoolwide effort to improve writing. In the lab's Professional Teaching and Learning Cycle (PTLC), a literacy specialist facilitates grade-level team meetings to help teachers learn to incorporate writing instruction across the curriculum. Although using the model has not been directly correlated to gains in student achievement, research has shown that writing across the curriculum improves students' comprehension and retention of content. The author describes how the model is implemented to the teams of five to six teachers and how the PTLC process helped teachers incorporate writing across the curriculum. (Contains 3 online resources.)