Writing across the Curriculum in Adult Basic Education.

Adult basic education programs could teach writing by incorporating writing across the curriculum to learn as well as to communicate. Since expressive writing is a good way to encourage students to write without intimidating them, a free writing period genuinely could be productive if the teacher assigned a definite subject, such as a topic that had just been discussed. Free writing, usually in the form of journals, could be used (1) to start discussions, (2) to focus attention, (3) to summarize lessons, (4) to re-orient lost classes, (5) to respond to readings, (6) to generate paper topics, and (7) to monitor class progress. Disabled writers such as those in adult basic education classes need opportunities and encouragement to write to enable them to learn more about their areas of study and to discover that writing is not such an intimidating process. Teachers could then move on to provide instruction in form, structure, and ways of organizing ideas, also with a cross-curricular approach. It would then be the instructor's responsibility to intervene at any step of the process that troubled a student and to help throughout revision, thereby teaching the revision process. High school noncompleters need to write not just to pass the high school equivalency test but also to live fuller lives in many personal ways, from recording a telephone message to sending letters of inquiry to writing to family and friends. And all of these personal applications of writing skill could provide invaluable preparation for the workplace. (AEW)