Expository Writing Across the Curriculum

 Excerpted from:  

  Writing

  A Landmark School Teaching Guide
  by Jean Gudaitis Tarricone
  © 1995 Landmark School, Inc. and Jean Gudaitis Tarricone
  

  "By the time a child is in late elementary school, expository writing

   demands are almost everywhere, in every subject."  

                                                              -Jean Gudaitis Tarricone

Here are some examples.

•  Art class (sequential task): "Explain the four major steps that must be completed before firing your piece of clay."

•  Social Studies Class (enumerative, descriptive task): "List the three branches of U.S. government and describe their      roles."

• Science Class (compare/contrast task): "Compare the physical characteristics of a skate and a sting ray. Also, discuss their major structural differences."

• Math class (cause/effect task): "If angle A were decreased by five degrees, explain how triangle ABC would no longer be equilateral. Be sure to mention all other angles and sides."

• Language Arts/Literature (opinion/evaluative task): "Not many people in the book like T.J. What is your opinion of him and how he treats others?"

• Social Studies, Language Arts and similar classes (descriptive task): "Describe the plight of a farm family during the dust bowl."

In sum, sequential, enumerative, compare/contrast, cause/effect, opinion, and descriptive tasks are an everyday occurrence in the curriculum from late elementary school to college. Without the proper guidance, many students with language-based learning disabilities have great difficulty demonstrating their true knowledge. Expository skills are also important in the development of life and workplace skills. For example, without some basic structures for organizing thoughts, how will a student with language-based learning disabilities effectively talk about a movie? How will this person have concise, topic-related, discussions in social situations? Strong organizational teaching can help these students both to express themselves better and understand others' explanations.

In the workplace, effective expression and organizational skills are a necessity. For example, school admission and work placement often requires application essays. A person needs to be able to explain why they want to study at a particular school or why they are applying for a certain job. Later on, business letters and other basic correspondence skills are necessary. Early on, students need to learn how to write letters of complaint, appreciation, concern, or request as a part of their daily personal and professional lives. Writing work memos (instructional or informative) and reports (summaries, time sequences, interpretations) are often required as well.

Good organizational and expository skill teaching enables students to complete such tasks with more success and confidence.

Educational literature describes various methods of teaching expository writing. Although some do not provide the structure and microuniting necessary for students with language-based learning disabilities, others have been adapted and applied to the Landmark curriculum very effectively.

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