a job aid (350 words) promoting the school’s plan to promote an emphasis on writing skills across the curriculum. This can be an outline, presentation, or anything approved by your faculty member.

Include the following:

• A SMART goal (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely) that addresses writing across the curriculum and the impact it will have on students’ learning
• Specific strategies that will need to be taken for the goal to be achieved
• Each strategy must be broken down into action steps.
• Each action step is further broken down into tasks.
• Designate school personnel responsible for the monitoring of each step and the date by which every step must be completed.
• Examples of writing-to-learn and writing-in-disciplines activities that can be used in content area classrooms
• Provide examples of 4 different writing-to-learn activities.
• Explain how these activities can be used to develop students’ critical thinking skills and enhance their learning of content.

How to Write a 350-Word Job Aid for Writing Across the Curriculum

Introduction

Begin by explaining that writing should not be limited to English language arts classrooms because writing is an essential tool for learning, communication, analysis, and critical thinking across all academic disciplines. Introduce the school’s plan to establish a consistent emphasis on writing skills throughout the curriculum. Explain that the job aid will provide educators with a practical implementation plan that includes a SMART goal, strategies, action steps, assigned personnel, deadlines, and classroom activities. Keep the introduction concise because the complete job aid is limited to approximately 350 words.

Section 1: SMART Goal for Writing Across the Curriculum

Develop a SMART goal that clearly identifies what the school intends to accomplish, how progress will be measured, why the goal is attainable and realistic, and when it will be completed. The goal should connect writing instruction directly to student learning rather than simply increasing the amount of writing students complete.

A strong goal could focus on increasing the percentage of students demonstrating proficiency in discipline-specific writing by a measurable amount within one academic year. Include a baseline assessment, target percentage, common writing expectations, and a specific completion date. Explain that the goal should be evaluated through writing samples, common rubrics, formative assessments, student work portfolios, or other measurable evidence.

Section 2: Strategies, Action Steps, Tasks, Personnel, and Timelines

Organize this portion of the job aid as a concise implementation framework.

Strategy: Establish Common Writing Expectations

The action step is to develop schoolwide expectations for writing across content areas. Tasks include reviewing current writing standards, creating a common writing rubric, and identifying essential writing skills. The curriculum coordinator and department chairs should monitor completion by an established professional-development deadline.

Strategy: Provide Teacher Professional Development

The action step is to train teachers in writing-to-learn and writing-in-the-disciplines strategies. Tasks include conducting professional-development sessions, modeling classroom activities, and providing teachers with instructional resources. The instructional coach and curriculum coordinator should monitor implementation throughout the academic year.

Strategy: Monitor Student Progress

The action step is to collect and evaluate student writing samples. Tasks include administering baseline and follow-up writing assessments, reviewing student portfolios, and analyzing rubric results. Teachers and department chairs should complete progress reviews at designated grading periods.

Section 3: Writing-to-Learn and Writing-in-the-Disciplines Activities

Explain that writing-to-learn activities use brief, informal writing to help students process and understand content. Examples include quick writes, exit tickets, learning journals, and think-pair-write reflections. Writing-in-the-disciplines activities, by contrast, teach students how writing functions within a particular subject, such as writing a scientific explanation, historical argument, mathematical justification, or evidence-based analysis.

Section 4: Critical Thinking and Content Learning

Explain how the four writing-to-learn activities encourage students to interpret information, make connections, justify conclusions, and reflect on their understanding. Quick writes allow students to process new concepts, while exit tickets reveal misconceptions that teachers can address. Learning journals encourage reflection and connections between concepts, while think-pair-write activities require students to compare ideas and justify their reasoning. Together, these activities strengthen critical thinking because students must actively organize, evaluate, and communicate their understanding rather than passively receive information.

Conclusion

Conclude by emphasizing that a successful writing-across-the-curriculum initiative requires consistent expectations, teacher preparation, measurable goals, and ongoing monitoring. Reinforce that writing-to-learn activities can be incorporated into daily instruction without requiring lengthy essays or substantially increasing teacher workload. Explain that when students regularly write about disciplinary content, they develop stronger communication, critical-thinking, and content-learning skills.

References

Graham, S., & Perin, D. (2007). Writing next: Effective strategies to improve writing of adolescents in middle and high schools. Carnegie Corporation of New York.

National Council of Teachers of English. (2016). Writing across the curriculum. National Council of Teachers of English.

National Writing Project. (2023). Writing across the curriculum. National Writing Project.

Wiley, M., & Voss, M. (1999). Constructing arguments from multiple sources: Tasks that promote understanding and not just memory for text. Research in the Teaching of English, 33(2), 180–198.

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