Design Principles For Teaching Effective Writing

This volume aims to analyze validated intervention programs focused on: the teaching and learning of writing as a skill and the use of writing as a learning activity in various school subjects/skills.

In the 21st century, writing is more important than at any other time in human history. Yet much of the emphasis in schooling has been on reading, and after the early years, writing skills have been given less attention. Internationally, too many children are leaving school without the writing skills they need to succeed in life. The evidence indicates that students rarely develop proficiency as writers without effective teacher instruction. Teaching Writing offers a comprehensive approach for the middle years of schooling, when the groundwork should be laid for the demanding writing tasks of senior school and the workplace. Teaching Writing outlines evidence-based principles of writing instruction for upper primary students and young adolescents. It presents strategies that are ready for adoption or adaptation, and exemplars to assist with designing and implementing writing lessons across the middle years of school. It addresses writing from a multimodal perspective while also highlighting the importance of teaching linguistic aspects of text design such as sentence structure, vocabulary and spelling as foundations for meaning-making. Contributors argue that students need to continue to develop their skills in both handwriting and keyboarding. Examples of the teaching of writing across disciplines are presented through a range of vignettes. Strategies for assessing student writing and for supporting students with diverse needs are also explored. With contributions from leading literacy educators, Teaching Writing is an invaluable resource for primary, secondary and pre-service teachers.

Effective Curriculum for Teaching L2 Writing sets out a clear big picture for curricular thinking about L2 writing pedagogy and offers a step-by-step guide to curriculum design with practical examples and illustrations. Its main purpose is to help pre-service and practicing teachers design courses for teaching academic writing and to do this as efficiently and effectively as possible. Bringing together the what and the how-to with research-based principles, what sets this book apart is its overarching focus on language pedagogy and language building. Part 1 examines curricular foundations in general and focuses on what is socially valued in L2 writing and pedagogy at school and at the college and university level. Part 2 is concerned with the nitty-gritty̶—the daily realities of curricular design and classroom instruction. Part 3 takes a close look at the key pedagogical ingredients of teaching academic L2 writing: vocabulary and collocations, grammar for academic writing, and down-to-earth techniques for helping L2 writers to organize discourse and ideas. The Appendix provides an extensive checklist for developing curricula for a course or several courses in language teaching.

What is understanding and how does it differ from knowledge? How can we determine the big ideas worth understanding? Why is understanding an important teaching goal, and how do we know when students have attained it? How can we create a rigorous and engaging curriculum that focuses on understanding and leads to improved student performance in today's high-stakes, standards-based environment? Authors Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe answer these and many other questions in this second edition of Understanding by Design. Drawing on feedback from thousands of educators around the world who have used the UbD framework since its introduction in 1998, the authors have greatly revised and expanded their original work to guide educators across the K-16 spectrum in the design of curriculum, assessment, and instruction. With an improved UbD Template at its core, the book explains the rationale of backward design and explores in greater depth the meaning of such key ideas as essential questions and transfer tasks. Readers will learn why the familiar coverage- and activity-based approaches to curriculum design fall short, and how a focus on the six facets of understanding can enrich student learning. With an expanded array of practical strategies, tools, and examples from all subject areas, the book demonstrates how the research-based principles of Understanding by Design apply to district frameworks as well as to individual units of curriculum. Combining provocative ideas, thoughtful analysis, and tested approaches, this new edition of Understanding by Design offers teacher-designers a clear path to the creation of curriculum that ensures better learning and a more stimulating experience for students and teachers alike.

Foundational Practices in Online Writing Instruction addresses administrators’ and instructors’ questions for developing online writing programs and courses. Written by experts in the field, this book uniquely attends to issues of inclusive and accessible online writing instruction in technology-enhanced settings, as well as teaching with mobile technologies and multimodal compositions.

Effective student writing begins with well-designed classroom assignments. In Designing Writing Assignments, veteran educator Traci Gardner offers practical ways for teachers to develop assignments that will allow students to express their creativity and grow as writers and thinkers while still addressing the many demands of resource-stretched classrooms.

Highly practical and accessible, this indispensable book provides clear-cut strategies for improving K-12 writing instruction. The contributors are leading authorities who demonstrate proven ways to teach different aspects of writing, with chapters on planning, revision, sentence construction, handwriting, spelling, and motivation. The use of the Internet in instruction is addressed, and exemplary approaches to teaching English-language learners and students with special needs are discussed. The book also offers best-practice guidelines for designing an effective writing program. Focusing on everyday applications of current scientific research, the book features many illustrative case examples and vignettes.

This book takes a fresh look at the challenge of setting up educational writing intervention studies in authentic class contexts. In four sections, the book offers innovative approaches on how to conceptualize, design, implement, and evaluate writing interventions for research purposes. Hot topics in the field such as professional development for scaling up writing interventions, building research practice partnerships, implementation variation and fidelity, and response to intervention are addressed. To illustrate the proposed approaches for writing promotion, the book showcases a wide variety of writing interventions from around the world, ranging from single-participant designs to large-scale intervention studies in writing.

Examining how research-informed design knowledge is created, represented, and used in educational research and innovation projects, this book offers theoretical, methodological, and practical guidance on how to (and how not to) create, represent, and (re)use research-informed design principles. The chapters explore how educational researchers, designers, teachers, and other innovating practitioners can make outcomes of educational research and innovation projects scalable, readily applicable in educational design, and impactful on practice. They offer methodological "know-how" that is theoretically robust and grounded in research and design experiences. Providing critical reflection on current theories, methods, and practices, this book also considers directions for the future in light of developments in semantic web technologies, AI, and other emerging technologies. This book is a helpful guide for researchers, research students, and innovation designers who aim to produce and apply design knowledge that is robust, grounded in research, and practically useful as a part of diverse research and innovation projects.

Presents a model for ensuring quality teaching that balances the necessity of research-based data with the equally vital need to understand the strengths and weaknesses of individual students.