Teachers at Great Valley Writing Camp in Ripon
The educators who created the Great Valley Writing Camp in Ripon are dedicated professionals who are committed to each students' individual writing progress. They participated as part of a 60-hour college course sponsored by Great Valley Writing Project at CSU Stanislaus. All of the teachers share a common goal: to become better teachers of writing.
Form February through May, each team held after-school meetings to discuss assigned texts, choose instructional strategies, practice new techniques, and design lesson plans. Between meetings, teachers field-tested promising ideas in their classrooms: they purposefully experimented with lesson delivery, and they carefully observed student outcomes. Together, the teammates shared their findings and refined their plans, and they succeeded in creating a wonderful curriculum that stimulates student thinking and motivates the expression of ideas through writing.
Next year, these teachers will incorporate many new instructional strategies and procedures to improve the writing programs at their own schools.
Form February through May, each team held after-school meetings to discuss assigned texts, choose instructional strategies, practice new techniques, and design lesson plans. Between meetings, teachers field-tested promising ideas in their classrooms: they purposefully experimented with lesson delivery, and they carefully observed student outcomes. Together, the teammates shared their findings and refined their plans, and they succeeded in creating a wonderful curriculum that stimulates student thinking and motivates the expression of ideas through writing.
Next year, these teachers will incorporate many new instructional strategies and procedures to improve the writing programs at their own schools.
The K-3rd grade teachers studied two textbooks: Smarter Charts and Smarter Charts for Math, Science, and Social Studies by Kristine Mraz and Marjorie Martinelli. These texts focus on effective use of visuals and graphic organizers, stressing instructional methods that mentally engage young learners and help them master various thinking processes, creating independent learners who can think critically and organize ideas on their own.
The 4th-12th grade teachers studied a wonderful book titled Making Thinking Visible by Ron Ritchhart, Mark Church, and Karin Morrison. This text focuses on classroom practices and routines that help students learn to think, plan, create, question, and engage independently as learners.
Read more about what our teachers did and learned:
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> Visit Great Valley Writing Camps on Facebook.
> Take a peek at our Teacher Comments page.