Event Overview:
Jennifer Serravallo, author of the bestselling The Writing Strategies Book, is joined by award winning author-illustrator Jarrett Lerner (EngiNerds series of Middle Grade novels, the Geeger the Robot series of early chapter books, The Hunger Heroes series of graphic novel chapter books, and the Nat the Cat series, and the new A Work in Progress), and Darren Victory (award-winning journalist, former teacher, and current member of Jen’s consulting team) for an exploration of bringing writing strategies to life, and supporting our (teachers’ and students’!) creativity as we compose with words and pictures.
In the first part of the day, Jen will lead you through an exploration of essential information about writing strategies: how to create them, and how to plan assessment-based instruction using a hierarchy of goals and skill progressions.
Next, Jen and Jarrett will be in conversation about writing process and the role that sketching and illustration play. Jarrett will help you become comfortable and empowered with demonstrating drawing for your students. Finally, Jarrett will help teachers develop their own proficiency with interpreting ideas into symbols–helpful for charting and leaving visual reminders of strategies for student writers.
Darren will lead the last part of the day, helping you bring strategies to life in your classroom. This portion will be filled with video examples of Jen and colleagues working one-on-one and in small groups to provide students with explicit strategy instruction and targeted feedback. Before each example, you’ll learn of a predictable structure to help your teaching be efficient and focused.
The day will be jam-packed, hands on, inspirational, and highly practical.
It is possible to run a writing classroom that is research-based and filled with explicit instruction and makes space for joy and centers student agency and ownership over their composition. Jen, Jarrett, and Darren will show you how!
Learning Objectives:
Participants will:
Understand writing strategies: what they are, how to create them from exploring your own writing process, and how to discover them in mentor texts
Using a hierarchy of goals and skill progressions to assess and plan for strategy instruction
Understanding writing process and the role of illustration and drawing in pre-writing, drafting, revision, and publication
Developing teachers’ comfort with illustration–to model drawing during instruction and to create charts and tools to support students’ remembering of strategies
Exploring one-on-one and small group structures for explicit teaching and guided practice of strategies
**Having a copy of The Writing Strategies Book on hand during the workshop is very strongly encouraged.
Who should participate? Teachers of Grades K-8, literacy coaches, school administrators, professors of education, school librarians, curriculum coordinators, ELA supervisors.