Best Practices In Writing Instruction
Course Description:
Excellent writing skills are important for all students across the curriculum. In this course, teachers will learn evidence-based instructional writing strategies that directly connect to the Common Core State Standards for K-12 students. Topics covered in this course include strategies for teaching narrative composition, argumentative and informative writing skills, planning and revision techniques, improving sentence construction skills, spelling and handwriting. Motivating students during the writing process, using technology to support writing instruction, as well as teaching writing to English Language Learners and using writing instruction within the Response to Intervention Framework are also covered in this class. Teachers will not only learn the latest research and instructional procedures, but will also have the opportunity to create lesson plans specific to the needs of the students in their classroom.
Goals and Objectives
As a result of participation in this course, students should:
- Learn how to design an effective writing program for pre-K-12th grade students.
- Incorporate instructional best practices to teach narrative composition, argumentative and informative writing.
- Develop best practices in teaching planning, evaluation and revision of student assignments, improving sentence structure and spelling skills and using technological support across the curriculum.
- Use instructional best practices to teach writing skills to English Language Learners.
- Apply research-based instructional strategies to develop dynamic lesson plans for the students in your classroom.
Texts/Readings
The required text is:
Graham, S., MacArthur, C. A., & Fitzgerald, J., eds. (2013). Best Practices in Writing Instruction 2nd ed. New York: Guilford Press. Press.