Teaching Writing: Basic Writing Project Workshop Series
(30 hours)
The introductory workshop on teaching writing employs several ways to learn about teaching writing. For a start, teachers write themselves, and notice how their own thinking processes parallel those of students. Second, teachers examine samples of their own students' writing, noticing patterns of development and typical difficulties. Third, participants review the growing body of research and theory on composition, which offers solid guidance about what works in teaching writing. Fourth -- the largest segment of the workshop -- teachers experiment with a large range of practical, successful strategies, troubleshooting and fine-tuning promising practices together. Topics typically covered: classroom organization, assignment design, pre-writing strategies, revision activities, conferencing, peer editing, record-keeping, evaluation and grading of writing, sharing and publishing student work, preparation for state assessments.

Learning Through Content Area Reading and Writing
(15 to 30 hours)
While drawing upon the approach of the basic IWP workshop, this program is for teachers whose primary responsibility is NOT language arts/English (although teachers of literature or writing are, of course, welcome). The organizing principle is reading and writing as tools of learning -- how teachers of any subject can help students engage the subject matter more deeply using reading, writing, speaking and listening skills crucial for student learning and success in college and beyond. Learn instructional strategies that create an active learning environment. Enjoy the opportunity to become a guide or coach as students take control of their learning and interact productively with their classmates.

Strategies include: brief easy-to-use activities that help students understand the concepts you are teaching; learning logs; jigsaw activities; dialogue journals; reading circles; and assessment tools.

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Classroom Workshop, Using the Six-Plus-One Traits Assessment
(15 to 30 hours)
The 6+1 Traits assessment tool, developed by the Northwest Regional Developmental Laboratory, can be most effectively taught within a classroom writing workshop. Good assessment must be matched with teaching strategies that help students create strong, meaningful writing. Classroom workshop especially enables this, as teachers differentiate instruction to address individual needs. Students in a workshop choose their own topics for writing and books for reading, using scheduled chunks of classroom time for reading and writing. They collaborate with classmates, keep records, and self-evaluate.

Topics for exploration include:

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Reading-Writing Connections
(30 hours)
Research shows that children grow best as readers and writers -- and as thinkers -- when they encounter not only subskills but also complete language events. Thus teachers can become more effective at teaching the language arts curriculum by integrating its elements. Writing helps students process and understand their reading; and reading provides the wide exposure to effective language and important ideas that inform writing. This workshop helps teachers create literature-rich, student-centered classrooms, using practical day-to-day activities that make learning come alive. Among key structures and strategies we study: reading aloud, storytelling, reading and writing workshop, effective comprehension strategies, literature logs, dialogue journals, literature circles and text sets, peer writing/editing groups, publishing student work, thematic units, portfolio evaluation, and other topics requested by participants.

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The First Month of School:
Establishing Best Practice Instruction
(12 hours)
The first month of school sets the tone and organization that ensure academic success.

Let the first 20 days establish the procedures for your Reading Workshop and Writing Workshop all in the context of a Balanced Literacy Block. In this course, individual teachers or grade-level teams will plan to roll out an organization of the workshop approach that will leave both teacher and student ready for the rigorous curriculum that the school year holds. Each component will be analyzed, prepared, and ready for delivery when school opens its doors. This necessary preparation is the key to a successful year of literacy learning.

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Literacy Coaching
(15 hours)
The role of the reading teacher/reading specialist has moved from the traditional specialist model to a collaborative coaching model. Key to the new role of the Literacy Coach is to improve classroom instruction via modeling and co-teaching as well as providing professional development in the areas of reading and language arts.

Participants will:

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Advanced Workshops
(15-30 hrs)
Because teachers wishing to extend the study of their craft usually bring their own strong concerns to the work, advanced IWP workshop syllabi are kept open and flexible. However, there are basic topics that give shape to each course. In teaching writing, for example, these may include scheduling and managing a writing-intensive classroom; conducting student conferences; developing peer editing groups; effectively teaching and monitoring skills; designing assignments; publishing student work; evaluation, grading, and workable record-keeping systems; using writing to teach content in various subject areas; communicating with parents and administrators; developing a building- or district-wide focus on effective writing instruction; and achieving on state assessments. Project leaders work with those in charge of scheduling a program, and with prospective participants, to plan the specifics for the course.

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Literature Circles:
Collaborative Reading and Writing
(15 hours)
Literature Circles are a powerful small group structure for reading and discussing fiction and non-fiction texts at all grade levels, across the curriculum. Literature Circles combine two very important educational ideas: collaborative learning and independent reading. Simply defined, Literature Circles are discussion groups of two to ten students who choose and read the same article, book, or novel. The circles have regular meetings, with discussion roles rotating each session. When they finish a book, each circle reports through appropriate means to the whole class; then they trade members with other finishing groups, select more reading, and move into a new cycle. The focus of this IWP workshop is the management of this complex and elegant student-centered strategy.

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Using Data to Support Good Instruction
(30 hours)
In this era of yearly literacy assessment, schools amass a plethora of data. Rather than just label schools and teachers, this data should inform instruction, yet rarely is it used in this manner. How, then, can teachers use assessment to benefit teaching and learning?

This workshop will:

Participants will:

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