Writing
Presented by Wendy Calise

This portion of the session will be devoted to the deliberate extensive process of foundation work necessary to create strong writers. The ability to write is a skill that takes consistent presentation, writing, and editing over the entire span of the elementary years. Wendy Calise wrote lessons and experimented with children for many years developing a framework of lessons that directly address the complexity and forms of writing.

This workshop is designed for 9-12 teachers, though some of it is appropriate for younger children as well. Topics covered include:

• Types of sentences
• Formation of a paragraph using a topic sentence, details, and conclusion
• Use of the questions who, what where, when and why to start a piece of writing clearly
• Expansion of single paragraph into multi-paragraph work
• Consideration of audience and tone
• Use of outline
• Forms of writing: personal narrative, descriptive writing, friendly and business letters, comparison/contrast, persuasive, research, instructional writing, creative writing, and poetry. (Specific presentations will be made to aid teachers in instruction of teaching each of the forms)
• Use of and practice with transition, contrast, sequence, concluding, restatement, generalizing, etc… words and phrases
• Note taking from varying sources
• Creating one’s own words from notes