Memo #2

As I started my research, I honestly had some small panic attacks. I really didn't think that I was going to find any research, to support or negate my thought that writing could help students learn science and math while helping develop their writing skills. However, I was (extremely) pleasantly surprised to find a lot of research in this field. There were teachers who had written about lesson plans that they have done to integrate writing, there was writing on ways that students have developed writing skills in the classroom, and there was actual scientific experiments to see whether students would learn from writing in their science and math classrooms. For example, in the article "Integrating Writing into Mathematics Classroom to Increase Students Problem Solving Skills" one group of students solved math problems the way they were taught in class, and other students wrote about their problem. Results found that if students wrote about their problem, their problem solving skills increased (they were more likely to get the problems right) and they had better writing skills. In the article "Writing to Learn by Learning to Write During the School Science Laboratory: Helping Middle and High School Students Develop Argumenative Writing Skills as They Learn Core Ideas" students were tested at the beginning of the school year, the middle of the school year, and the end of the school year on their writing skills and science knowledge. In the mean time, the students conducted science experiments and intensive writing projects. At the end of the experiment, it was found that the students developed a lot of writing skills and scientific knowledge due to their intense writing projects. This means that, through my research, I have found that writing is a two-way street; students can learn their subjects more intensely while also developing their writing skills. Through all of my research , I did not exactly find a scholarly leader in this field, but instead something a little bit differently; most of my sources all cited the same site: the National Research Council. I have gone onto their site, but have yet to find anything to aid in their research (yet). Their site is very large and very hard to navigate, and so I may be able to eventually find something that will support my current findings (or maybe argue against my findings!) but so far, I have not found much.