2. Week 1
Topics:
1. Understanding and Applying the CCSS for Secondary
ELA
2. Using the Cognitive Rigor Matrix to Increase a
Student’s Depth of Learning
Key Points:
1. Identifying the most essential standards for your
students helps your prepare your lessons in
accordance with student needs.
2. The writing process should take students through the
various levels of the Cognitive Rigor Matrix as they
reach deeper and deeper levels of thinking.
3. Week 2
Topics:
1. Why We Teach Writing
2. Writing Standards of the New Utah Core
Key Points:
1. The majority of graduating seniors in America
today are not prepared for the writing demands of
a college-level program.
2. Understanding the breadth of the writing standards
can help you create learning activities that address
all critical areas of writing, not just essay writing.
4. Week 3
Topics:
1. Error Analysis
2. Assessing Writing
Key Points:
1. Identifying patterns in student errors informs
future instruction and differentiation.
2. Choosing rubrics that are clear, informative,
and address only what you have taught is
crucial to providing valuable feedback.
5. Week 4
Topics:
1. Task/Purpose/Audience
2. Planning and Organizing—The Prewriting
Process
Key Points:
1. Writing prompts should provide enough
information so students can identify the task,
purpose and audience.
2. Students need a clear “plan of attack” when
it comes to prewriting.
3. Students need a clear evaluation method to
assess their own writing before submitting it
for peer and teacher evaluation.
6. Weeks 5 & 6
Topics:
1. Informative Text Structures: Sequence, Enumeration,
Cause/Effect, Problem/Solution, Judgment/Critique,
Inductive/Deductive
2. Transitions, Domain-Specific Vocabulary and Signals
3. Graphic Organizers
Key Points:
1. Students must learn the variations of informative texts to
be well-rounded writers.
2. Students must learn key transitions and signal words in
order to help their reader follow along with their
informative pieces.
3. Graphic organizers are meant to be tools that are
adjusted to meet the writing prompt.
7. Week 7
Topics:
1. Mini Grammar Lessons
2. Editing
Key Points:
1. Using technology to teach grammar engages
students more than worksheets ever will!
2. Teachers must explicitly teach the editing
process for it to be effective.
8. Week 8
Topic:
1. Revise/Rewrite
Key Points:
1. Writing often, every day if possible, will do more
than anything else to enhance writing fluency and
length.
2. Ask students to consider only one aspect of their
writing during each round of revision to refine their
editing skills.
9. Week 9
Topic:
1. Peer Reviews and Responses
Key Points:
1. Students need the process of peer review to be
explicitly taught and modeled.
2. Students need a specific protocol to use during
peer reviews.
10. Week 10
Topic:
1. Publishing and Technology
Key Points:
1. Students will be more motivated to produce their
best writing when they know that people, other
than the teacher, will see what they have written.
2. Technology can be an amazing tool to help
publish student writing for free.
11. Week 11
Topic:
1. Giving Feedback
Key Points:
1. Feedback must be specific, timely and positive in
order to be effective.
2. Feedback should come from diverse sources to get
multiple perspectives.
3. Feedback should inform future instruction.
