Pearson Canada

Writing Workshop Videos

In these 75-minute video courses, Calkins and her colleagues speak directly to teachers at a particular grade level, giving you their best current knowledge about all the things you most need to know in order to have a successful year teaching Units of Study in Writing. Expect to learn TCRWP's thoughts for your grade-level's year long curriculum and for ways to adapt the units based on your writers' prior experiences. Expect, too, a brief intensive on essential methods for teaching writing, on ways to use—and not use—the spiral units, and an overview of key units for your grade level.

Units of Study for Teaching Writing Video Orientations, K-8

Watch Lucy Calkins and practicing teachers working with students during a writing workshop

Opinion / Argument Writing

Whole Class Instruction in Opinion Writing: Teaching for Transfer as Students Move Between Persuasive Speeches and Petitions 3-5

Introducing a Class to Text-based Debate (3-5)

A Writing Conference: Teaching a Student to Write for Audience (3-5)

Teaching Students to Examine Craft Moves and Author’s intent in Mentor Persuasive Essay in Order to Support Revision (5-8)

Assessing Endings to Persuasive Essays in Order to Clarify Expectations and Inform Essay Revisions (5-8)

Informative / Explanatory Writing

Using a Learning Progression to Help Students Work Towards Clear Goals as they Lift the Level of Their Information Writing (K-2)

Whole Class Instruction to Teach Students to Use Domain- Specific Vocabulary Within Information Writing (K-2)

Whole Class Instruction to Teach Students to Reread their Information Texts (3-5)

Whole Class Instruction: Teaching Students to Organize Information Texts to Support a Claim (5-8)

Narrative Writing

Providing and then Withholding Scaffolding to Support one Child’s Early Understanding of Narrative Structure (K-2)

Small Group Work in Writing to Support Students Developing a Sense of Closure (K-2)

Teaching Students to Study Spelling Patterns and to Transfer This to Their Own Writing (K-2)

Assessment-Based Conferring to Raise the Level of Narrative Writing so the Writer can Convey Events Precisely (3-5)

Peer Conferring: Students Teach Each Other to Revise in Order to Orient their Readers (3-5)

Whole Class Instruction in Studying Author’s Craft and Intent: Reading a Mentor Text so Writers Learn Literary Technique (5-8)

An Ensuing Conference: Providing Critical Feedback to Raise Standards (5-8)

Whole Class Instruction: Fantasy Writers Develop Setting (5-8)