Part I: Launching Students as Writers

*Includes a comprehensive video training resource guide

This portion of the video training program focuses on effective primary-grade writing instruction early in the school year. Viewers observe classroom proven strategies for using a six trait model to engage incoming kindergartners in writing and build on the entry-level writing skills of first and second grade students.

Viewers learn how to:

• effectively use read-alouds to highlight all six writing traits and bring them alive for students
• help students not only generate a wealth of writing ideas but also record their "story seeds" in age-appropriate ways
• maximize the benefits of student drawing as a catalyst for effective writing
• teach students a variety of strategies for enriching their writing with greater detail
• support and scaffold students as they explore and learn simple ways to organize both narrative and expository writing
• begin teaching correct writing conventions within the context of writing
• engage primary-age children in interactive modeled writing lessons rich in traits -- and see the results in their independent writing
• establish classroom proven routines and procedures for a smoothly running daily writing workshop
• launch all primary-grade students as authors -- beginning on the very first day of school

Part II: Extending Students' Writing Skills

*Includes a comprehensive video training resource guide

This portion of the video training program contains a variety of teaching strategies that focus on each of the six traits. Viewers observe age-appropriate instruction, scaffolding, and writing experiences for kindergarten, first and second grade learners. Viewers also see how intertwined and interdependent the traits are and how they artfully combine to create effective student writing.

Viewers learn how to:

• make excellent use of children's literature to determine how effectively authors have used the six writing traits
• expand students' repertoire of organizational frameworks for writing
• implement a variety of word choice strategies that enliven primary students' writing with vivid and interesting words
• engage even your most reluctant writers with prompts designed to generate high levels of voice
• create editing tasks that reinforce students' accuracy and correctness
• introduce students to the trait of fluency and guide their early experiences with this aspect of writing
• teach primary-age children how to revise for targeted writing traits
• extend students' writing progress well beyond introductory levels
• nurture children's increasing independence as writers