Using multimodal writing tasks in science classrooms

These are two of the thoughts that ran through my mind when my graduate studies advisor suggested I try “writingto-learn” activities in my classes. Like many high school science teachers, I often thought that devoting class time to writing would take away from valuable time that could be spent doing “science learning” activities. I also felt that my training as a science teacher had not fully prepared me to instruct about or evaluate these kinds of assignments in the classroom. However, as I encountered the growing body of research on writing-to-learn activities and their potential benefits (Prain 2006; Wallace, Hand, and Prain 2004), I gradually began to change my mind. Writing-to-learn activities are designed to use writing as a process in which students generate and clarify understanding of scientific concepts for themselves, rather than simply communicating with a teacher for evaluation. Instead of having students