In "The Neglected R," the National Commission on Writing in America's Schools and Colleges declared that, "Writing today is not a frill for the few but an essential skill for the many." In this workshop Carol Jago will demonstrate how you can help all your students acquire the writing skills they need to succeed.

Carol offers practical help with teaching students to write effective essays both on demand and through revision. Participants will learn how to help students focus, organize, and develop their ideas for analytical and persuasive writing tasks. Particular emphasis will be given to revision strategies. Issues to be addressed include developing a thesis, analyzing supporting evidence, the pros and cons of peer editing, and the distinct demands various writing types place upon students. Teachers will come away with a clear plan for constructing a coherent writing assignment.

The workshop will also offer you practical techniques for handling the paper load. Drawing from her book Papers, Papers, Papers: An English Teacher's Survival Guide, Carol will demonstrate how to respond to student writing in ways that foster improvement from one paper to the next.

Outline

• Cohesive Writing: To write cohesively means doing many things at once- wrestling with ideas, balancing form and function, pushing words this way and that, attending to syntax and diction, and employing imagery and metaphor until a coherent message emerges.
• Core beliefs about writing
  • In order to learn to write, students must write
  • Authentic tasks and topics generate the most cohesive student writing
  • Students need both supportive and critical feedback
  • There is no cohesive writing without revision
• Writing on demand
• Exploring the distinct demands of various types of writing
• Peer and self-editing
• Using rubrics to learn common expectations
• Revision strategies
• Commenting rather than correcting
• Writing effective prompts
• Uncommon sense for handling the paper load

Who should attend?

Time: 8:30 A.M.-3:00 P.M.