"Because writing is thinking and learning requires thinking, students who write as they are learning think more and thus learn more."

Moore, D. W., Moore, S. A., Cunningham, P. M., & Cunningham, J. W. Developing
readers and writers in the content areas K-12

While writing is a crucial part of students literacy, writing also has a crucial place outside the language arts curriculum. Writing across the curriculum, writing in all content areas, has been used for almost 150 years to support student learning. As students express and explain their learning, they reflect and think about content in ways that improve their comprehension. 

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As students solve a problem or address an issue through authentic tasks, they create artifacts or products that demonstrate their learning and understanding. While it is easy (and fun) to create products like comics and book trailers with Wixie, or even Pixie, you can move to a more student-centered approach (from project toward PBL), by providing students with choices of products and asking them to choose which type best supports the goals of their project.

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Now that the school year is in full-swing, you can really start getting into some serious making with Wixie. The month of October has so many great holidays and specialty days (National Poetry Day, Flip Your Classroom Day), not to mention month-long events (National Book Month) that it is easy to find ways to engage students in thinking, creating, and technology. 

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As they are learning a second language, all students go through distinct stages of language acquisition. Effective ELL instruction reflects a student's stage, helps students move through stages, and engages students at all stages in high-level thinking.

Stages of language acquisition, identified through research by Stephen Krashen and others, are:

1. The Silent/Receptive Stage (Preproduction) 
2. The Early Production Stage
3. The Speech Emergence Stage 
4. Intermediate Language Proficiency Stage
5. Advanced Language Proficiency Stage

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