Advancing Civics-specific Disciplinary Writing in the Elementary Grades issue

Abstract

Students need support through intentional writing instruction to develop their discipline-specific writing skills outside of Language Arts. Yet, we argue not all writing instruction provides the same opportunities for student learning. In this study, with the support of professional development, teachers engaged students in civic perspective-taking through writing, focusing on locally relevant public issues. Drawing from disciplinary literacy and genre pedagogy, our research team conducted a descriptive study where thematic analysis was applied to examine second and third graders' civics writing samples. Our findings indicate that students' engagement with key civic concepts became more complex and purposeful as they practiced argumentative writing. Development continued from second to third grade in both the sophistication of their civic perspective-taking as well as their writing. Additionally, we found that student motivation to engage in argumentative writing increased in all classrooms across both grade levels when engaging with locally relevant public issues. This article provides details about the elementary civics writing curriculum and the students' writing outcomes as well as includes the two graphic organizers used in the curriculum.

Work descriptions written by third-graders: An aspect of disciplinary literacy in primary craft education education

“…In addition, self-assessment should be supported with concrete questions and joint discussion. In general, verbal activities and discussions seem to support and advance disciplinary writing, as also Enright et al (2023) note in this special issue. Finally, the process should include time to edit the text including spelling and basic orthographical issues.…”

“…This challenge has led to thinking about teacher collaboration as a solution to develop good practices to teach disciplinary literacies (Fang & Coatoam, 2013). In this issue, also Enright et al (2023) point out the need to embed writing instruction across the disciplines. In the case of elementary grades concerning science Grysko and Zygouris-Coe (2019) suggest collaboration among elementary school teachers, science curriculum specialists, and literacy coaches for coconstructing knowledge about literacy in science.…”