This is the most recent version of my presentation from the Midwest Conference on Differentiated Instruction on July 18th.

2. A 20 Writing Instruction Made Tangible (Gr. 6-12) Katie McKnight, Ph.D. Email: Katie@KatherineMcKnight.com Twitter: @LiteracyWorld Facebook: KatieMcKnightLiteracy Website: www.KatherineMcKnight.com

4. Writing Beliefs Above Everything Else—WRITING IS COMMUNICATION Writing is not DRILL & KILL Worksheets Writing is not practicing isolated skills Writing is not mindless writing exercises Writing is not all about assessment Writing is not formulas WRITING IS COMMUNICATION

5. Writing Beliefs Writing may stem from and is intimately related to: Thinking Reading Speaking But—Writing is none of these things. Written Communication is not spoken language transferred to print. We cannot “Write it like you say it!”

6. Making Writing Tangible Incorporating multiple intelligences in mini lessons. Using and developing strategic writing activities that employ multiple intelligences

7. Mini Lesson Development Let’s look at the Mini Lesson Determine Content Need Keep Them Short Make Them Simple Engage Students and Provide for Interaction Provide Practice Time Consider, “What’s Next?” Evaluate

8. Sample Mini Lessons Lessons for Focus and Organization Don’t Spill the topics Sweet Organization

9. Sample Mini Lessons Lessons for Sentence Structure, Punctuation and Grammar Nouns and Verbs Postcards from the Past Crushing Contractions

10. Kinesthetic Writing Exercises Based on Improvisation Games (Spolin, 1999) One Word Story Beginning-Middle-End Situation-Problem-Solution Pearls on a String

11. Reflections What did I learn about writing? Why is what I learned important To ME? To my STUDENTS? How will I incorporate what I have learned into my teaching?

12. Lessons Were Selected from these Books New Book: Hands on Grammar: Multimodal Grammar and Language Mini Lessons, Grades 5-12 Available on Amazon September 1, 2011