With students in our classrooms writing daily and developing their ideas into finished writing projects, how do we teach in ways that raise the level of the writing work students are able to do? We start by helping our students learn to read like writers. By reading differently, students can develop the visions they need to write well. This one-day workshop is designed to show teachers of writing how to teach students to read like writers and create curriculum around "stacks" of texts that show students the kinds of writing we'd like them to produce.
Looking Closely at the Role of Vision in the Writing Process
- Helping students answer the question, "What have you read in the world that is like what you are trying to write?"
- Understanding what it means to read like a writer and see how texts are written
- Learning to envision possibilities for writing from what other writers are doing.
Gathering Texts from the World of Writing to Use in Teaching
- Grounding teaching in real world writing and understanding the difference between prescriptive teaching and descriptive teaching
- Looking at five "containers" in which teachers find a rich variety of short texts to use in teaching: picture books, collections, excerpts, newspapers, magazines and websites
- Recognizing the kinds of writing that exist and how organizing them by writers' intentions helps clarify teaching and make it more intentional
- Deciding what to teach from all the possibilities and translating curriculum standards into units of study that make sense for writing workshops.
Organizing Inquiry to Generate Curriculum from Real World Texts
- Creating a framework to study real world writing: expectation, immersion, close study, articulating the content, and writing under the influence of study
- Learning to move from what students notice in written texts to specific curricular possibilities for their writing
- Understanding why the teaching stance of inquiry makes sense
- Recognizing the importance of depth rather than coverage in curriculum development.
Topics and Goals
- Before there is teaching, there must be writing: An overview of what's essential in the writing workshop.
- The role of vision in the process of writing and how to help students have vision for the writing they will do.
- Anchoring the study of writing in real world texts: how to find them, select them and study them.
- Understanding the difference between modes of writing and genres of writing and the implications of this for teaching.
- Understanding the role of approximation in learning when students take on rigorous writing work in challenging genres.
- Curriculum translation: Selecting genre and craft studies to support students in meeting the expectations of large-scale assessments and required curriculum documents.
- Exploring a predictable framework for study that can be used to address any curricular topic in the writing workshop.
Who should attend?
Classroom teachers of grades 3-6, curriculum coordinators, language arts specialists, staff developers and administrators interested in curriculum.Time: 8:30 A.M.-3:00 P.M.
TUITION
The cost of this workshop is $189.00 per person. If you register 3 or more participants at the same time the cost is $179.00 per person. For Early Bird rate prices, call 1-800-541-2086 ext. 1151.
