One of the biggest changes in modern academic standards is the shift in responsibility for general literacy. Instead of only “writing teachers” teaching reading and writing, all teachers in all content areas are now expected to do so (something we've talked about before).

In the past, literacy, that is, the ability to read, write, and understand, has been the domain of English Language Arts teachers (and elsewhere in the world, Literature and Composition teachers).

Limiting the ability to write to a single content area has altered the way students think in ways that are only now being revealed as mathematics teachers are asked to teach writing. Students are now accustomed to expressing rudimentary understandings in truncated sentence fragments on exit questionnaires, taking notes that compile other people's ideas, and avoiding the responsibility of crafting compelling arguments that synthesize multiple perspectives on a daily basis.

So we, English Language Arts teachers, respond by giving them blank-space graphic organizers that prompt them to give “reason 1,” “reason 2,” and “reason 3” in clear sentences that avoid complexity or intellectual effort. , as long as your “writing” conforms to an expected form.

And we provide those same graphic organizers when teachers in other content areas request resources.

Now, generations later, the idea of writing about math or science seems not only challenging, but forced and clumsy. Science and mathematics, when taught properly, are more like philosophies and ways of making sense of the world than “content areas,” offering an infinite number of stimuli to encourage students to write.

We are in the 21st century and 21st century thinking is different.

While full of connectivity, collaboration, and amazing possibilities, the 21st century learning era is characterized by fascination with image, visual spectacle, flashing alerts, endlessly accessible frivolities, and cognitively limited communication patterns.

And in proper response, writing might be the answer we've been looking for, right under our noses all this time.