The Writing Rope: Evidence-Based Writing Instruction with Joan Sedita
Joan Sedita is the founder of Keys to Literacy, a literacy professional development organization based in MA. Joan has been in the literacy field for over 40 years as a teacher, administrator, and teacher trainer. She has authored multiple literacy professional development programs, including The Key Comprehension Routine, The Key Vocabulary Routine, Keys to Beginning Reading, Keys to Content Writing, and Keys to Early Writing. Beginning in 1975, she worked for 23 years at the Landmark School, a pioneer in the development of literacy intervention programs for students with dyslexia and learning disabilities. Joan was one of the three lead trainers in MA for the Reading First Program and was a LETRS author and trainer. She received her M.Ed. in Reading from Harvard University and her B.A. from Boston College.
This virtual workshop is based on The Writing Rope model for writing instruction (Sedita, 2019). Many teachers of students in grades 5-12 do not recognize that effective writing instruction must address multiple components, represented as strands in a rope. This workshop will begin with an overview of how learning difficulties such as dysgraphia, dyslexia, and executive function issues affect students’ writing ability.
Next, an explanation of the components of The Writing Rope will be presented, along with instructional suggestions. These include:
1) Critical Thinking (generating ideas and information, stages of the writing process),
2) Syntax (syntactic awareness, sentence elaboration, punctuation),
3) Text Structure (narrative, informational, opinion; paragraph structure; patterns of organization,
4) Writing Craft (awareness of task, audience, purpose; word choice; literary devices,
5) Transcription (spelling and handwriting fluency). This workshop addresses writing instruction across grades 3-12.
This session has been approved by Academic Language Therapy Association (ALTA) for 3 Continuing Education hours (CE).