Writing for the Single Subject Credential Program

The Single Subject Teaching Credential Program prepares teachers to work with students in subject specific content areas, including mathematics, English, science, and social science, in middle and high schools. Given these responsibilities, effective writing and the teaching of effective writing within your discipline are extremely important. We expect that you will come into the program with foundational writing skills, including the ability to write reflections, write in evaluative genres in response to professional articles, and respond to questions in writing. We also expect that you will demonstrate proper spelling and grammar, plan for writing appropriately, and include research-based connections.

Through coursework in the program, we will prepare you to write in additional genres that will be essential to your career. By graduation, you should be able to do the following:

  • Write reflections
  • Write effective, coherent lesson plans
  • Write parent communications
  • Compose written reflections on teaching practices and student learning
  • Create literacy and writing experiences for all students
  • Create a unit of study with multiple components
  • Do writing required for the PACT assessment

Types of Writing

As a student in the Single Subject Credential Program, you will find the following kinds of writing are expected:

  • Lesson plans
  • Reflective writing based on assignments and results of lesson implementation
  • Analytic narratives used within the PACT project
  • Power point presentations
  • Scientific and historical reports and writing in math
  • Writing and teaching writing genres such as essays, poetry, and narrative
  • Writing assessments
  • Evaluations of educational materials for literacy needs

Recommended Practices

In order to succeed at the writing tasks above, students are recommended to use the following practices, where appropriate:

  • Support from instructors in lesson plan design using content area related texts
  • Evaluation of student texts and materials within a given content.
  • Website strategies for finding valid materials (digital literacy)
  • Use of rubrics
  • Keeping up with course assignments and readings
  • Asking questions in class
  • Collaborating with classmates when possible; use peer review 
  • Forming your own library of supplemental materials in your discipline

Formats

For the Single Subject program, you will need to use templates created by the program that are used for lesson planning. These are available to you via TaskStream. You will also need to cite appropriate state standards. If you do cite readings in your coursework, use format. We suggest that students visit The Purdue Online Writing Lab and look at their APA resource page. Students are also strongly recommended to use peer review to help them identify errors in citations.

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