Oklahoma Writing Project
Write to Learn
Back-to-School
Conference
As schools prepare for Common Core Assessments, come learn about writing activities to integrate into your current curriculum and school day. All sessions will provide packets of resources, current research and active learning. Don’t miss out on this wonderful opportunity!
Saturday, August 24
8:15-8:45 am Registration
8:30 am-12:50 pm Conference Sessions
Sessions for Pre-K thru 12th grade
Lake Park Elementary
8221 NW 30th Street
Bethany, Ok 73008
Bring a Friend and Come for FREE! if you register by August 21.
Register on OWP Website: http://owp.ou.edu
Or use Direct link: You may need to cut and paste in your browser.
http://tinyurl.com/August24OWPDriveInConference
Sessions Schedule
8:15-8:45 Registration / Refreshments
Room 1 “Helping All Students be Successful Writers”
Lynette Wilson, Monroe Elementary School, Norman
This presentation will focus on strategies and activities that help all students become successful writers with a focus on evidence based opinion writing. Participants will be actively involved in the workshop and also learn prewriting activities to help the reluctant writer get started.
Room 2 “Journaling for Creativity: Picture This”
Nikki McCurtain, Plaza Towers, Moore
In this workshop, participants will acquire colorful strategies to use journaling in the classroom. Journaling is a great tool to cover the many genres of writing. By walking through the writing process, participants will learn how to use journals creatively to build stamina, skill, and motivation in the writer.
Room 3 “Demonstration Lesson: Dressing Up Your Writing”
Jenny Fudickar, Veritas Classical Academy, OKC
In this demonstration lesson, teachers will create a key-word outline of a fable and write their own version of the tale before “dressing-up” their story by using stronger verbs, adding more descriptive adverbs, and adding quality adjectives. Participants will also be given the tools to teach this lesson in their own classrooms.
Room 4 “Jedi Masters Wanted: Teaching Primary Students to Revise”
Lisa Linden, Lake Park Elementary, Putnam City
Young writers develop writing process skills through explicit teaching and support. Peer review and consultation can be a powerful tool for students learning to revise work in progress. The presentation shows how to engage students using a familiar hook and gives specific strategies for guiding the development of peer ‘teachers’ who become experts in revision strategies. The student objectives include: Common Core Writing Anchor Standard in Production and Distribution of Writing:ELA-Literacy.CCRA.W.5 Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach. Teacher competencies addressed are Teaching Elements relating to (DQ3) Helping Students Practice and Deepen Knowledge and (DQ5) Student Engagement strategies.
Room 1 “Using Opinion and Persuasion Writing in an Elementary Classroom”
Tamee Daniel, Dale Elementary, Dale
Our students need numerous opportunities to practice writing in the multiple genres that are required through CCSS. This presentation will provide participants with activities using the writing process and the writing traits to create opinion and persuasion pieces in their own classrooms. Activities covered in this presentation will include citing evidence, letter writing, speech writing, and writing book reports on historical figures.
Room 2 “Demonstration Lesson: Writing Popcorn Poetry…using adjectives and the five senses”
Ronnie Eckart, Heritage Trails, Moore
Participants will be part of a Demonstration Lesson Cycle where they will be actively involved in a lesson focused on writing poetry using the five senses. Following the lesson, deconstruction of best teaching strategies displayed in the lesson will be discussed. Participants will then be able to take this lesson and modify it for their own classrooms.
Room 3 “Teaching Grammar Through Revision”
Rae Payne, Hydro-Eakly Elementary, Hydro-Eakly
Elementary teachers often view writing as one more subject to cover within the already busy day. This presentation will demonstrate how classroom teachers can teach grammar within the writing process. Participants will use student samples to address the revision component of the writing process, while introducing and reinforcing the various concepts of grammar instruction.
Room 4 “Writing Across the Curriculum-Writing to Learn”
Audrey Tomlinson, Monroe Elementary, Norman
In this presentation, the focus will be on prewriting activities across the curriculum. Participants will learn how to incorporate an art piece into the Quick Write, use the Frayer Model to write in math, engage in motion and design for science, and write historical poetry for social studies.
Room 5 “W.O.W. Word of the Week”
Janice Brim, Plaza Towers, Moore
“Integrating Quality Character with Purposeful Quality Writing”
It is possible to teach quality writing and character development at the same time. In this workshop, participants will learn how to use word of the week activities to develop quality character in their students.
Session Three: 11:35-12:50
Room 1 “Teaching Linguistic Flexibility: Interactive Strategies for Revision”
Natalie Runnels, Harding Charter Preparatory School, OKC
This presentation shows the process by which we organize, revise, and otherwise “play” with language. Participants will learn strategies to help students move language around and revise their own writing to add style and sentence variety.
Room 2 “The Power of Paring Texts to Facilitate the Writing Process”
KenDale Barker, Central Junior High, Moore Public Schools
It is extremely important to teach writing rather than to assign it. This presentation will offer ways to teach writing using paired texts and the writing process as opposed to simply assigning writing.
Room 3 “Demonstration Lesson: Using Mentor Text in Writing”
Maggie Bennett, Pretty Water Elementary, Pretty Water
Children’s books are a great way to motivate students to write. This demonstration lesson shows how to use mentor text (patterned writing) in science class. Students will use science facts to create their own book from an animal’s perspective. Participants will be part of a Demonstration Lesson Cycle. You will be actively involved in a writing lesson following deconstruction of best teaching strategies displayed in the lesson.
Room 4 “The Tip of the Iceberg of Technology”
Amber Smith, Monroe Elementary, Norman
In this workshop, participants will discover technology resources available for use in their own classrooms. Many of the resources can be used to enhance writing instruction. If you have a computer and internet connection, these resources are for you! No assembly required.
Room 5 “Making Sense of Math the ‘Write’ Way—Embedding Writing in Mathematics Instruction”
Norma Ting, Monroe Elementary, Norman
Teaching Strategies to Embed Writing in Mathematics Instruction…1) Start out gently with affective, open-ended prompts about students’ feelings…2) Let students write about familiar mathematical concepts…3) Write about more advanced math concepts through drawings and graphs and the use of small groups.