Overview

In today’s middle school writing classroom, the pressures to achieve state and national standards are overwhelming for students and teachers alike. Many classrooms focus so completely on writing the perfect essay that the fun of writing wanes. In this workshop, participants will examine two common essay types—informative and persuasive—as they are approached in several non-traditional ways. To complement these alternative ways of teaching these two essay types, this workshop will also re-examine the writing process, writing motivation for teachers and students, and formative evaluation methods for writing progress. The end result of this work is a final lesson plan for an informative or persuasive essay that utilizes a creative approach in its instruction. It is the overall goal of this workshop to rekindle motivation and creativity in middle school writing instruction to help teachers and students have some fun on their journey toward the perfect essay.

Goals and Products

This online course will enable participants to:

• Understand the classroom implications of several NCTE standards pertinent for middle school writing
• Explore new ways to motivate students and teachers to write
• Familiarize themselves with two common middle school essay styles--informative and persuasive--and learn new ways of teaching them
• Revisit the writing workshop, including pre-, during-, and post-writing, through the lens of motivational strategies
• Utilize technology writing resources when appropriate
• Discover evaluation techniques that will promote writing as a continual process

As a final product, participants will create an innovative lesson plan that incorporates the writing and motivational strategies learned in this workshop to help students write an informative or persuasive essay.

Format and Requirements

This workshop is divided into six one-week sessions that include readings, an activity, and an online discussion among workshop participants. Each session is designed to take approximately two to four hours to complete.

The outline for the workshop is as follows:

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, and proficiency with e-mail and current web browsers.

Content and Technology Standards

In this workshop, Words for Understanding will help participants to support their students in meeting the following NCTE standards:

Standard 5 Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.

Standard 6 Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and non-print texts.

Standard 8 Students use a variety of technological and information resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge.

Standard 11 Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities. In addition, this workshop will help participants meet the following ISTE Educational Technology Standards and Performance Indicators for All Teachers: Standards: (http://edtechleaders.org/documents/NETSAdmin)

This workshop will help participants meet the following NCTE standards:

Standard 3 Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).

Standard 4 Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.

Standard 6 Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and non-print texts.

Standard 11 Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.

Standard 12 Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).

In addition, this workshop will help participants meet the following ISTE Educational Technology Standards and Performance Indicators for All Teachers:

• II. PLANNING AND DESIGNING LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS AND EXPERIENCES.
• Teachers plan and design effective learning environments and experiences supported by technology.
• Identify and locate technology resources and evaluate them for accuracy and suitability.