Free Write Response January 5, 2015

What do you believe is important in writing in your content area?

When asked to write down what came to my mind when I hear ‘writing’, I wrote the words creativity, expression, communication, history, and literacy.  I think that this list of words is very telling of how I associate writing to my teachable subjects, which are History and English.   Writing is an integral component of both of these subjects, and arguably the most important form of expression of knowledge and communication of ideas, at least traditionally speaking, within these topic areas.  Expression and communication are the key words even in that sentence.  

I think that now more than ever, we need to examine writing within these subjects in a more open and less regimental light.  Essay writing is and should always be a part of the study of History and English, and it is what generally comes to mind to most people when they think of these disciplines.  However, it is arguable that creativity is equally important, especially within English.  This doesn’t necessarily mean fictional story writing, but also relates to the issue we discussed of writing for content learning.  Simply practicing writing as a way to become better at it, in a multitude of forms and styles.  Within the study of History, writing and reading are equally linked, in that most of what we learn about History at the I/S level is written word.  It is the main way which History has been recorded, analyzed, interpreted and passed on.  Thus, writing in all forms is inseparable from my own content areas of English and History, and will be a main focus during my development as a teacher.