Read Slice the Pie To Help Writers and Learners (PDF) by Charles Whitaker. In this article, Charles describes a pre-writing strategy in which the teacher and students use a graphic organizer — a pie chart — to help students define their own writing tasks at a point in a unit of study when their writing will emerge from and support their learning. This strategy is especially useful in content area learning, including learning in English/language arts. After reading the piece, complete the following activity.

Slice the Pie

Use the "Slice the Pie" activity described in the article as a pre-writing strategy for a piece to share with your colleagues. Begin by choosing one of the following questions as the broad subject matter for your "pie," or use a different question or subject you feel is better suited to your needs.

• What idea or strategy for integrating writing into content areas would I like to share with my colleagues?
• What should be the focus of our faculty's next professional development session?
• How can teachers and staff increase parental involvement at our school?
• What's the most important challenge facing our school, and what are some ways we can address it?