In a response to Peg Tyre’s article, “The Writing Revolution,” in this month’s Atlantic (more here), Jody Peltason makes a good point about the explicit teaching of writing.
Teaching students how to use words like “although” not only improves their writing and their reading; it improves their thinking. The linguistic structures that Hochman and the faculty at New Dorp are teaching their students are also heuristics, cognitive moves that help students to think about the world — the poems they read, the molecules they study, and yes, their personal experiences — in new and more powerful ways. If you’re going to pick one thing and stick with it, this form of writing instruction is not a bad place to start.