How a 5-Minute Writing Routine Boosted Thinking in My History Classroom
by Roel Concepcion
Logan Greene knows the challenges of teaching writing across the curriculum. As a middle school ELA and Social Studies teacher at Berry Middle School in Hoover, Alabama, with over 18 years of education experience, he's continually balancing the need to build students’ knowledge with the need to teach thinking and writing. During a recent webinar featuring other teachers who have begun using the Writing Pathway tool, Logan shared a simple practice that's transforming his classroom: starting each class with just a few minutes of focused sentence practice using the Writing Pathway tool.
"What worked best for me was starting every class with the Pathway as a way to kickstart the class," Logan explains. This approach addresses what research shows is essential for writing improvement — consistent, daily practice — without adding to teacher workload.
What makes this approach particularly powerful is how seamlessly it integrates with content learning. Rather than treating writing as a separate skill to be practiced in isolation, Logan's students practice constructing complex sentences about The Outsiders or the Civil Rights movement, or whatever content they're currently exploring. (Want to try it yourself? You can try creating sentence frames–aligned to your content–for students to complete with the Pathway’s material generator here.)
"I actually use the Pathway more in my history class [than ELA] because I'm able to match it up with the content in a beautiful way," he shares with a smile. "I'm working on English skills and the kids don't realize they're working on English skills."
