It's Time to Think Differently About Learning in the Classroom
It's Time to Think Differently About Learning in the Classroom
One of the biggest shifts in modern education standards is that responsibility for general literacy no longer rests solely on the shoulders of “language teachers”.
Today, all teachers, whatever their subject, are also tasked with teaching reading and writing skills. In other words, literacy has become the responsibility of all teachers, not just Literature or Language teachers.
In the past, literacy — the ability to read, write and understand — was seen as the domain of English or Literature teachers. But reducing writing skills to a single subject has had marked effects on students’ intellectual development. Now even maths teachers expect written work from students. Students, meanwhile, as they try to adapt to this change, often copy other people’s ideas by taking quick notes, or summarise the topic in a few simple sentences, avoiding the development of strong arguments that bring complex ideas together.
As language teachers, we respond to this by handing out graphic organisers that encourage students to write clear, short sentences, do not go into much depth and are simply filled in as “reason 1, reason 2, reason 3”. Teachers in other subjects also use these kinds of templates as writing resources.
Today, writing about maths or science feels to students not only challenging but also strange and artificial. Yet when taught properly, science and maths are like a philosophy for making sense of the world, and they offer an endless source of ideas and inspiration to fire up students’ motivation to write.
We are in the 21st century, and the mindset of this era is different.
Although the 21st century is full of connectivity, collaboration and limitless possibilities, it is also an era of growing obsession with visuals, images, constant notifications and mentally superficial forms of communication. In response, however, the answer we are looking for may have been right beside us all along: writing can help us rediscover the depth we have lost in this era’s fast-changing, superficial world of communication.
At British Language Schools, we believe in the importance of making writing an essential part of every lesson and every subject. Writing can enable all disciplines, not just language lessons, to build strong bridges in students’ minds. We are here to show our students that writing is not a simple task but a powerful way of deepening their thinking, making connections and understanding the world.
