Focus on Writing – An In-Person Series on Supporting Multilingual Writers

Focus on Writing DAY 1 – Launching the Writing Workshop for Multilingual Learners

• Examine a scaffolded writing cycle for MLs and discuss common pitfalls that dissuade new writers from embracing this content area
• Think about what to get ready, including ideas for writing tools, rituals, routines, and expectations 
• Learn how to guide writers in shaping and sharing their multilingual writing identity
• Consider how using writing notebooks can allow your young author’s to shine and provide a perfect place for them to play with words, ideas, and their languages within a scaffolded writing cycle
• Explore using personalized notebooks for brainstorming, collecting ideas, researching, and planning.  See examples of when to stay or go back to the notebook and when to move out of the notebook during writing instruction.
• Leave with digital and concrete resources to get your students excited to write!

Focus on Writing DAY 2 – Supporting Multilingual Learners by Modeling and Deconstructing the Genre 

• Examine how modeling and deconstructing genres using mentor texts fits into a scaffolded writing cycle for language learners
• See examples of how to use picture books and other text excerpts to teach genre-specific language, support grammar and sentence complexity, guide readers in understanding writing types and structures, and help learners emulate diverse and bilingual authors
• Explore activities, response options, and language-focused anchor chart ideas that you can try right away!

Focus on Writing DAY 3 – If This, Then That… Assess, Confer, Teach, and Create Author’s Agency with your Multilingual Writers

• Learn how to analyze student writing through a language lens on word, sentence, and discourse development
• Gather tools for the conferral process, including questions to ask students, forms to guide self-reflection, and phrases that affirm student production
• Receive ready-to-use templates, record-keeping pages, and lesson ideas that will help you think about your writers in relation to their language development levels
• Leave with more than 15 small group writing ideas that you can put into place in your writing workshop!