ELA2451E
Writing That Hits Home (Elementary Edition): Easy and Fun Ways to Unlock the 4 Modes of Writing in (Active)

Subject(s):Language Arts and Reading

Proficiency Levels: Mastery

Grade(s):K, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Suggested Prerequisites: This is an introductory course for teachers, technology specialists, curriculum specialists, professional development specialists, or other school personnel.  Participants are expected to have regular access to computers.  In addition, participants should be proficient with using email, browsing the Internet, and navigating to computer files.

Description/Abstract: Writing is an essential key to success in our world and must be taught and not just assigned in our classrooms.  This workshop will focus on how to nurture a love for writing in students and how to inspire students to be successful writers through the Writer’s Workshop approach. Descriptive, narrative, and informative writing modes are explored through a variety of strategies.  Simple and fun artwork will be the key to unlocking the writers within each student, validating and preserving not only their personal stories, but stories of family, community and history. The overall goal of this workshop is to reinvigorate writing instruction for both you and your students, motivating a desire to write from within which has a direct correlation to creating successful, high achieving writers.  Participants will leave the course with a Writing Workshop Unit for teaching a mode of writing of their choice along with mini-lessons to help build skills and the potential for easily expanding the unit to cover the other modes of writing.

Objectives: This course will enable participants to:
• Use writing as a tool in your classroom to help students understand the power that stories (and writing) have to connect and inspire a sense of pride in families, communities and beyond.
• Gain new insight on how to effectively teach all four modes of writing and introduce purpose through different genres.
• Understand how to initiate a Writer’s Workshop approach in your classroom and to inspire lifelong writers.
• Understand how to create a classroom environment which supports writing and values students’ voices.
• Understand how to design meaningful writing lessons that incorporate state and national writing standards.
• Utilize technology in conjunction with writing to stimulate creativity, incorporating the use of ISTE standard in the classroom.
• Discover the value of meaningful assessment which students value and which improves their writing.