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Spelling and Grammar: Bringing Meaningful and Fun Instruction Into Your Writing Classroom
Wednesday, July 10, 2024 @ 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm EDT
Presented by Dr. Lucy Calkins, Robinson Professor of Literacy at Teachers College, Columbia University, Founding Director at The Reading & Writing Project at Mossflower, and Senior Author of Units of Study in Writing, Reading, and Phonics; Katy Wischow, Staff Developer, The Reading & Writing Project at Mossflower; and Kara Arnold, Staff Developer, The Reading & Writing Project at Mossflower
Sponsored by The Reading & Writing Project at Mossflower
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It can be challenging to teach grammar and spelling in ways that are fascinating and long lasting but don’t consume all the time in your day. So many of us have tried program after program, approach after approach, learning new strategies without feeling confident that we’ve put together a full, workable system to serve kids’ needs.
In this edWebinar, you’ll hear about a few specific approaches to grammar instruction based on the latest research and refined by classroom observations. You’ll come away with a handful of replicable, fun, low-prep ways to teach any grammar skill, and you’ll learn strategies to help kids transfer this instruction into all their writing, all day long. Katy Wischow, a co-author of the grammar extensions for the new Units of Study in Writing, will also take you through an example of breaking down the state standards into meaningful instruction to support all writing.
You’ll then learn about some of the most important ideas to consider when teaching spelling. Kara Arnold, author of a brand-new set of spelling modules to support upper-elementary writers, will help you think through assessing spelling in logical and manageable ways, and then demonstrate the kinds of streamlined spelling instruction you might employ to help your students. You’ll learn about a progression for teaching spelling as well as an armload of methods to teach common spelling generalizations.
You’ll leave this session with a set of practical, classroom-tested tools to use immediately! This edWebinar will be of interest to K-12 teachers, school leaders, and district leaders. There will be time for questions at the end of the presentation.
About the Presenters
Dr. Lucy Calkins is the Founding Director of The Reading & Writing Project at Mossflower. She’s been on the faculty at Teachers College, Columbia University for over four decades, as both the Co-director of the Literacy Specialist Program and as the Richard Robinson Professor of Children’s Literature. Dr. Calkins has written 50+ books, including the widely adopted Units of Study curriculum. Dr. Calkins began her career as a teacher for elementary, middle, and high school students, then joined Don Graves as a researcher on the National Institute of Education’s first major study of children as writers. That research has been credited with transforming the teaching of writing, bringing writing workshops, which were once the province of college classrooms, into K-8 classrooms. For decades since then, Dr. Calkins has devoted most of her time to leading organizations that aim to support best practices in the teaching of reading and writing.
Katy Wischow is a Staff Developer with The Reading & Writing Project at Mossflower. More than a decade ago, Katy found her own way to her very first Reading & Writing Project Summer Institute, where she decided she absolutely had to have the Units of Study curriculum. Soon, she’d transformed her Newark, NJ middle school classroom into a flourishing writing workshop; her students’ passionate response led Katy to enroll in the Literacy Specialist Program at Teachers College, Columbia University. Katy has co-authored the book Unlocking the Power of Classroom Talk, co-written several Units of Study, and authored the Ida and Jake series in the Jump Rope Readers. Katy is deeply interested in grammar, writing professionally, supporting teachers’ writing lives, and building strong learning cultures in schools and classrooms.
Kara Arnold is a Staff Developer with The Reading & Writing Project at Mossflower. Kara is best known in their community for her ground-breaking work with upper-grade spelling and phonics. She’s authored a spelling curriculum that includes a pathway of 100+ micro-lessons to help upper-grade students who need explicit lessons in the patterns and rules that inform how spelling works in the English language. Teachers who work with Kara are thrilled with her ability to make language arts education accessible and joyful for all students. She supports teachers as they address the essentials with their students and strives to make learning engaging and exciting.
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The Reading & Writing Project at Mossflower was created out of the pioneering work that Lucy Calkins began over 40 years ago. Inspired by her research, she developed innovative curricula and methods that transformed the way children learned to write. For decades since, she has worked with educators to help students become what she always knew them to be: proficient and enthusiastic writers, readers, and thinkers.
Today, RWP-M remains deeply rooted in this experience, while also holding true to this spirit of innovation and continuous learning. Lucy Calkins and her team author the Units of Study in Reading, Writing, and Phonics and several series of engaging decodable texts. More than authors of curriculum, at its core, RWP-M is a community of practice, a think tank, and a professional development organization dedicated to transforming the way students learn to read, write, and think.
