Teaching Writing Skills All Year Long
Teaching Writing Skills All Year Long
INDIANAPOLIS, IN | December 14, 2018
After you’ve devised a plan to launch your writer’s workshop during the first weeks of school, the next step is to look ahead toward the rest of the year. This full-day workshop is designed to guide K-12 teachers through the planning of a yearlong writing curriculum. This includes determining mini-lesson instruction, identifying frequent assignments, and communicating assessment feedback all within the three major types of writing— opinion/persuasive/argumentative, informative/expository, and narrative.
Workshop Topics
- Define a “writing unit”: its length, its focuses, and its final product(s).
- Discover how often to “publish” a final draft and how frequently students should produce first drafts.
- Identify procedures for selecting priority writing standards to target within each writing unit.
- Learn strategies for teaching a writing skill over multiple days to deepen student understanding and gradually release responsibility to the students.
- Learn effective ways to integrate convention/grammar skills throughout the year.
- Learn how to incorporate mentor text examples and kid-friendly rubrics within a unit.
- Receive suggestions for grading student writing and assessing students’ understanding of a genre.
When you leave, you'll be able to:
- Organize grade-level writing standards and grammar skills to be taught within any writing unit.
- Embed the 6 Traits of Writing throughout the school year as you spiral through specific skills that are unique to each trait.
- Speed up or slow down any writing unit to meet the needs of your writers.
- Target isolated skills within intermittent "maintenance" mini-lessons throughout the year.
- Assess mastery of writing skills via grades or standards-based reporting.
- Teach writing with confidence and intentionality.
Free follow-up training video:
Teachers who attend Teaching Writing Skills All Year Long will be given a complimentary one-month subscription to Kristina's matching video on webPD, Building Kid-Friendly Writing Rubrics (PK-1, 2-12).
- During the complimentary subscription period, teachers are encouraged to share access with every colleague in their school, allowing the entire staff to learn key concepts from the workshop.
Workshop Excerpts:
Target Audience
K-6 Classroom Teachers
Literacy Coaches
Literacy Coordinators
Title I Teachers / Directors
6-12 ELA Teachers
K-12 High-Ability Teachers
K-12 Administrators
Testimonials
“So grateful for your expertise & how you bring it all together! ” Becky Nelson, teacher at Butterfield Elementary School, Lombard, IL
“Thanks for all your ideas, lesson plans, & easy-to-implment ideas. I can't wait to start using these in my classroom. My writing instruction & student achievement is going to explode!” Robin Young, teacher at Hamilton Southeaster Junior High School, Fishers, IN
"This is what I wanted to see. I feel prepared and ready to jump in!" Kaitlyn Caskey, teacher at John F. Kennedy Elementary School, Kettering, OH
"My writing curriculum just got the boost it needed to be effective!" Nicole Glacinski, teacher at Jefferson Park Elementary School, El Paso, IL
"I am leaving this professional development energized and better prepared to help the teachers in our school system with their writing instruction. I loved every minute." Dr. Melanie Park, writing coach for Huntington County Community School Corporation and Huntington University Assistant Professor, Huntington, IN
Call Smekens Education toll free to learn more.
888-376-0448