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Project Manager: Carolyn Plosky
School: WHS
Type of Grant: Professional Development
Target Grade: 6-12
Curriculum: English
Start Date: Fall 2025
A full-day professional development session for about 30 teachers representing the WHS
and McCall English Departments. This session would focus on facilitating effective writing workshops
for students.
This ties to the district’s current highlighted goal of readiness-to-learn as creative writing is the most requested skill that we receive from students so it would meet students where they are at while also offering an avenue to teach prioritized standards. Prioritized standards from the Common Core addressed through this professional development opportunity include Writing Standards 1-5.
What makes this session so attractive is that it focuses on orchestrating a workshop model in the classroom where writing is divided into distinct steps but is approached individually by the student. This means that differentiation happens naturally where students focus on and receive support based on the steps that are most relevant to them as individuals. Students proceed at unique paces and end up with different products. Teachers benefit from support in facilitating this practice as it is labor intensive to maintain but yields tremendous results when done well. This session will give teachers the confidence to manage such a classroom model and the language to make it consistent as students progress through grades 6-12.
This session includes professional discussion of the workshop model that includes challenges, requirements, and opportunities. It will also entail practicing writing from a student’s perspective and ultimately designing a lesson that teachers can take with them to try in the classroom immediately.
GrubStreet has been a hub of the local writing community since 1997. Some teachers and students
participate in their summer workshops and speak highly of the program.
Total: $4,369.33
