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POWER Cycles and Unit Planning  YCIS Y1-3 Onsite Sep 2025 (1)

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https://products.brookespublishing.com/The-Writing-Rope-P1344.aspx

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PRE-READING #1: The Writing Rope Framework

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PRE-READING #1: The Writing Rope Framework

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SUNFLOWER - YCIS Y1-6 Onsite Sep. 2025 (1)

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The Writing Revolution Tips for Activities 

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The Writing Revolution Tips for Activities 

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PRE-READING #2: 6 Principles of the Writing Revolution

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PRE-READING #2: 6 Principles of the Writing Revolution

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Copy of Grades 3-5 TWR Sample Pacing Guides.docx

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The Writing Revolution: K-2 Lesson Activities Guide

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The Writing Revolution: K-2 Lesson Activities Guide

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PRE-READING #3: Reading and Writing Rope

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PRE-READING #3: Reading and Writing Rope

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7 Teaching Principles for Effective Writing Instruction

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7 Teaching Principles for Effective Writing Instruction

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Teaching Methods Ranked by Impact on Writing Outcomes

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Teaching Methods Ranked by Impact on Writing Outcomes

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Writing Instruction

Most of my language instruction research and writing has focused on reading, because we typically see more research and more debate in this area. However, the question does come up, What about writing? Truthfully, I have been so focused on reading instruction research, I have not spent a lot of time examining this research. This week, I decided to finally tackle the topic. However, much to my surprise there is very little research in this area, compared to reading. While I was able to find a couple of meta-analyses on the topic, some of them had very narrow focuses, or did not include effect sizes. That being said, the most comprehensive study on the topic appeared to be conducted by Gillespie, Et al in 2014. Their meta-analysis included 43 studies and weighted for study quality. Their study included studies looking at students with diagnosed learning disabilities, in grades 1-12. They found the following results:

Definitions: As written by Gilespie, Et al.

Strategy Instruction:

Involved modeling how to use specific strategies for planning, writing, revising, and/or editing text and incorporated student practice of the strategies in at least two sessions with the goal of independent use over time.

Process Writing: Writing, which consisted of students engaging in cycles of planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing their writing, sustained time for writing for authentic purposes and authentic audiences, and instruction conducted in mini-lessons to target students' writing needs as they arose;

Prewriting: Writing, which involved students participating in activities such as brainstorming or using a graphic organizer to help generate and organize ideas for their writing.

Procedural Facilitation:

Writing, which included supports for students such as verbal prompts or cue cards that facilitated planning, writing, or revising compositions.

goal setting, which involved providing students with a goal for their writing (e.g., include elements of a persuasive essay) or students choosing their own goals for writing

Diction: Dictation to a scribe or into a tape recorder.

Discussion:

Obviously strategy instruction was the big winner of this meta-analysis, as it was the only pedagogical strategy that was a high yield strategy. However, goal setting dictation, and process writing all looked like they could also have a moderate impact. That being said, I have always been hesitant to strongly advocate for dictation. I think dictation makes sense when we have low level reading students, cross curricular work or comprehension work, as it allows students to participate in more normal classroom instruction. However, I also think we can make a strong rationalist argument that if we want students to improve their writing, they themselves need to practice writing.

One weakness for this meta-analysis is that it limited its focus to special education students. Which might make it less generalizable to other student populations. However, usually studies on special education studies show the same strategies work, but with more muted results. Another weakness, seems to be that this research included so few strategies in its analysis. However, this seems likely more a reflection of the fact that language research is heavily biased towards reading.

Written by Nathaniel Hansford

Last Edited, 2022-04-11

References:

Gillespie, A., & Graham, S. (2014). A Meta-Analysis of Writing Interventions for Students With Learning Disabilities. Exceptional Children, 80(4), 454-473. https://doi-org.ezproxy.lakeheadu.ca/10.1177/0014402914527238

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Writing Instruction Most of my language instruction research and writing has focused on reading, because we typically see more research and more debate in this area. However, the question does come up, What about writing? Truthfully, I have been so focused on reading instruction research, I have not spent a lot of time examining this research.

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M.Ed. - Character Education

Post-Grad. Cert. - Early Literacy Development

25+ years PK-G2 classroom teacher

Literacy Coach, Mentor Program Coordinator

Finds joy in: word study, creating caring classrooms, reigniting teacher’s joy, eating ice cream, swimming and travel

miles@erinkentconsulting.com

linkedin.com/in/milesmadison/

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Literacy Consultants & Consulting Services | Erin Kent Consulting

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About the Community | Erin Kent Consulting (EKC)

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A few special gifts for signing up now: a strategy call with Erin Kent or an EKC Senior Strategist to get started using the EKC Community to support your current literacy initiatives; and 5 free spots in our live, virtual winter courses ($1495 value!)

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Curriculum based measurement Probe Generator | Writing | Intervention Central|

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The Curriculum based measurement Probe Generator for writing is an important tool that can be included as part of a teacher resources network for classroom management

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think SRSD (self-regulated strategy development)

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Understand the key characteristics of SRSD that make it a deeply structured and evidence-based approach to teaching writing. Transform your classroom today.

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The Writing Revolution - Empower teachers to help students

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By training educators in The Hochman Method©, The Writing Revolution (TWR) aims to help all students become proficient writers, readers, and critical thinkers.

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Copy of Writing- Small Group Planner Templates 

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Writing Lesson w/ Transfer Planner KG-G2

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Writing the Way to Better Reading - Podcast with Judith Hochman (Founder of Writing Revolution)

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Writing the Way to Better Reading - Podcast with Judith Hochman (Founder of Writing Revolution)

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S9 E11: Writing the way to better reading, with Judith Hochman, Ed.D.

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Podcast-Folge · Science of Reading: The Podcast · 26.02.2025 · 38 Min.

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Strategies for teaching writing in the early grades - Podcast

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Strategies for teaching writing in the early grades - Podcast

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206: Amy Siracusano describes the Not So Simple View of Writing and explains how this model helps us make instructional decisions when teaching young writers. She also shares a variety of strategies that will help you teach students at all different stages. Lots of goodness in this episode!
Click here for the show notes from this episode. Get my book, Reach All Readers!

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Strategies for teaching writing in the early grades - with Amy Siracusano

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206: Amy Siracusano describes the Not So Simple View of Writing and explains how this model helps us make instructional decisions when teaching young writers. S

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The Writing Revolution - the Interview: Podcast

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The Writing Revolution - the Interview: Podcast

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From July 22, 2022

The Writing Revolution authors, Judith Hochman and Natalie Wexler, share a 'revolutionary' approach to writing. The best part: It begins at the sentence level AND content knowledge drives the rigor. Moreover, there is an overlap in reading, writing, and critical thinking.

What are the principles of The Writing Revolution? There are six:

1. Students need explicit instruction in writing, beginning in the early elementary grades.

2. Sentences are the building blocks of all writing.

3. When embedded in the content of the curriculum, writing instruction is a powerful teaching tool.

4. The content of the curriculum drives the rigor of the writing activities.

5. Grammar is best taught in the context of student writing.

6. The two most important phases of the writing process are planning and revising.

The Writing Revolution, Not for Profit

The Writing Revolution, The Atlantic, October 2012

Writing and cognitive load theory, Natalie Wexler

We answer your questions about teaching reading in The Literacy 50-A Q&A Handbook for Teachers: Real-World Answers to Questions About Reading That Keep You Up at NightGrab free resources and episode alerts! Sign up for our email list at literacypodcast.comJoin our community on Facebook, and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, & Twitter.

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[Listen Again] The Writing Revolution with Judith Hochman and Natalie Wexler

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From July 22, 2022 The Writing Revolution authors, Judith Hochman and Natalie Wexler, share a 'revolutionary' approach to writing. The best part: It begins at

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Getting Formative Assessments Right: Podcast 

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Getting Formative Assessments Right: Podcast 

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236: Five Conditions for Getting Formative Assessment Right

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Podcast-Folge · The Cult of Pedagogy Podcast · 14.10.2024 · 47 Min.

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Writing is a task as complex and multifaceted as reading-but it's often taught as a single skill. Discover how to plan and deliver comprehensive, explicit, and evidence-based writing instruction with this groundbreaking book, aligned with IDA's Structured Literacy approach and based on the latest research.

Joan Sedita's innovative Writing Rope weaves multiple skills and strategies into five fundamentals of a comprehensive writing curriculum: critical thinking, syntax (sentences), text structure, writing craft, and transcription (spelling and handwriting). Teachers of Grades 4-8 will get crystal-clear guidelines that demystify the process of helping students learn to write and write to learn across academic content areas. And with dozens of included templates, handouts, and other resources-available for download online-teachers will have all the tools they need to design and deliver explicit, high-quality writing instruction.

Perfect for professional development, this invaluable planning guide will help teachers apply the science of reading to the skill of writing-and help students master a critically important aspect of literacy.

TEACHERS WILL:

Learn the fundamentals of effective writing instruction. Get research-based background knowledge about writing development, the five components of the Writing Rope framework, the role of fluent transcription skills in proficient writing, and the intentional choices proficient writers make about writing craft.

Apply evidence-based practices in the classroom. Teach essential skills all students must learn to become proficient writers, focusing on critical thinking strategies for generating ideas and gathering information before writing, strategies for each stage of the writing process, syntactic awareness and sentence writing, paragraph writing, and skillful structuring of different types of text.

Help students "write to learn." Teach students how to use writing to enhance their learning across different content areas. Learn how to plan effective writing assignments in different content areas, and explicitly teach students skills for summarizing texts and writing about narrative and expository text.

PRACTICAL MATERIALS: Apply the Writing Rope framework to support your students' writing skills with classroom activities, Connect to Your Classroom questions, suggestions for scaffolding, a Writing Assignment Guide to use with any grade or content area, and 40+ reproducible instructional resources for students and teachers.

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Writing is a task as complex and multifaceted as reading-but it's often taught as a single skill. Discover how to plan and deliver comprehensive, explicit, and evidence-based writing instruction with this groundbreaking book, aligned with IDA's Structured Literacy approach and based on the latest research.

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Equipped with this comprehensive guide, educators will be poised to implement decision-driven assessment, armed with practical tools and strategies to…

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Writing Revolution Possible Assessments and Rubrics

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Writing Revolution Possible Assessments and Rubrics

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Whole Class/Small Group Word Feature Concepts 

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The Writing Revolution - Editable Templates

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The Writing Revolution - Editable Templates

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TWR_ Sentence Level Strategies_ All K-2 Templates.pptx

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Copy of Using AI to Analyze Student Writing and Plan Writing Conferences

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"About 70% of the variation in reading and writing abilities are shared."

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"About 70% of the variation in reading and writing abilities are shared."

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Blast from the Past: This entry first posted on February 23, 2017 and was reposted on September 16, 2023. Currently our children are suffering the aftereffects of the COVID tragedy. School leaders are looking for ways to regain learning loss caused by a lack of teaching. One of the strategies often considered in times like these is to simplify the curriculum - strip away what may not be essential to allow a greater focus on what needs to be accomplished. In that context, I would not be surprised to see some schools jettisoning writing in favor of the much-tested reading. The tendency to go that way may even be worsened by the current heavy emphasis on a "science of reading." What is important to recognize - this blog entry originally included reference to a great deal of research on the topic, research supporting the value of teaching reading and writing together -- is that combining reading and writitng is part of the science of reading. Now, several years later, I can say that the research evidence has continued to accumulate - providing more and more reason for the combined teaching of reading and writing. If you want better reading scores, the science of reading says do not neglect writing, nor dispatch it to someplace else in the curriculum. When you feel especially pressured to improve reading achievement, that is the time to embrace more tightly the combination of reading and writing. So today I was conducting a workshop. I was told the teachers wanted information about reading/writing connections. Easy, right? Then I was told that they departmentalize K-6! At every grade they have a reading teacher and a different writing teacher. Any thoughts, comments, best practices, or research that would go against or support this practice? I know what I believe to be correct but would love to have your opinions in this conversation. Shanahan response:
For the past several years I've been complaining about how schools are organizing themselves regarding reading and writing. These days, the most common elementary school organization seems to be the 90-minute reading block, with writing taught some other time of the day (if at all). And, in middle schools and high schools many schools have readers' and writers' workshops-managed by different teachers.

I think both of those schemes are dopey and counterproductive.

But you've found a structure that is even worse!

These folks sound like the type of people that would separate Romeo and Juliet... Yin and Yang....Lennon and McCartney... love and marriage... Bert and Ernie...spaghetti and meatballs... You get the idea.

Reading and writing are related in many ways. And, though teachers can take advantage of these relationships in ways that can improve achievement, doing that would be very difficult and inefficient when taught separately as in your example.

The combination of reading and writing doesn't just change instruction-it can affect the curriculum itself. For instance, the Common Core State Standards require teachers to teach kids how to combine reading and writing for various purposes.

I wondered if this is a CCSS state? (your letter didn't specify). If so, that would be one of my big questions-how are they teaching kids to write about reading? Perhaps those goals can be accomplished within this odd organizational plan, but that would require a great deal of cross-classroom planning (the kind of planning that tends to impinge on teachers' personal time-and that rarely happens, no matter what the theory).

Admittedly, I'm aware of no studies that directly measure the impact of such organization, and the organizational studies that do exist suggest that organizational plans usually don't matter much in terms of learning. I guess I could praise this district at least for teaching writing-there are still too many places that haven't figured out the need for that yet.

However, a major purpose for teaching writing is its strong impact on reading achievement. Recently, some administrators who had been discouraging writing in their districts contacted me. Their concern was that writing took up a lot of time and their state was heavily stressing reading achievement. Time devoted to writing would "obviously" interfere with reaching their reading goals. They wanted to know why I was telling their teachers that writing was a must.

I explained to them that there were several reasons behind my urgings.

First, research shows that reading and writing are closely aligned. That is, reading and writing depend upon many of the same skills, strategies, and knowledge-though those are deployed in different ways in reading and writing. In fact, about 70% of the variation in reading and writing abilities are shared.

For example, to read one must decode words. That means being able to look at the word, recognize its elements (letters and letter combinations), retrieve associated pronunciations for those letters, and to blend those into a word pronunciation. For that to work, of course, you have to do that very quickly-and eventually with little conscious attention.

In contrast, to write one must spell words. That means being able to listen to the pronunciation of a word, to recognize its elements (phonemes-that is language sounds), to retrieve letters that match those sounds, and to recognize whether they are combining properly to make a well-formed word. And, again, fluency is essential.

Decoding is arguably easier than spelling, but learning to both pronounce and spell words simultaneously helps to increase decoding fluency. It provides a kind of overlearning that enhances one's ability. The same argument can be made concerning phonological awareness, and the use of vocabulary, grammar, text structure, tone, and other text elements-and the same kinds of connections exist between the routines one uses to pull up background knowledge, to set purposes, to predict, and so on.

Given the extensive overlaps, it should be evident that combined instruction would be a lot more efficient. When a school is trying to accomplish higher achievement that kind of efficiency and teaching power is indispensable.

Second, reading and writing are communicative processes, and there are cross-modal benefits to be derived from having students engage in each. Readers, who are writers, can end up with insights about what authors are up to and how they exert their effects, something of great value in text interpretation. Likewise, writers by being readers, can gain insights into the needs of other readers. Imagine how that can help one to write better.

This kind of insight sharing is unlikely without some teacher guidance-and making those kinds of connections across reading and writing experiences depends on sharing those experiences with the students. It would be hard for a teacher to know what came up in the various shared reading experiences that took place in the other class.

Third, reading and writing can be used in combination to accomplish goals. The Common Core emphasizes two goals for such combining: using writing to improve learning from text and using the reading of multiple texts to improve the writing of syntheses or reports.

Steve Graham and Michael Hebert (201) carried out a meta-analysis of more than 100 studies in which students wrote about text. They found that writing in various ways about what one had read improved comprehension and learning, and it did so better than reading alone, reading and rereading, or reading and discussing.

Students should not just be writing about text, they should be learning how to write about text effectively: how to write to text models, how to write summaries, how to write extended critiques and analyses, and how to write syntheses.

So, my reading of the research says: Teach kids to write and use this instruction to improve reading achievement. Do it separately and you are leaving achievement points on the table. No question this could be accomplished by two different teachers, but what a complicated mess that makes of it. Simplify.

(Pass the popcorn and butter, I'm going to watch some Laurel and Hardy. Some things just go together).
References
Graham, S., & Hebert, M. (2010). Writing to read: Evidence of how writing can improve reading. Washington, DC: Alliance for Excellent Education.

Shanahan, T. (2004). Overcoming the dominance of communication: Writing to think and learn. In T. L. Jetton and J. A. Dole (Eds.), Adolescent literacy research and practice. New York: Guilford Press.

Shanahan, T. (2008). Relations among oral language, reading, and writing development. In C.A. MacArthur, S. Graham, and J. Fitzgerald (Eds.), Handbook of writing research (pp. 171-186). New York: Guilford Press.

Shanahan, T. (2015). Relationships between reading and writing development. In C.A. MacArthur, S. Graham, and J. Fitzgerald (Eds.), Handbook of writing research (2nd ed., pp. 194-210). New York: The Guilford Press.

Tierney, R. J., and Shanahan, T. (1991). Research on the reading-writing relationship: Interactions, transactions, and outcomes. In R. Barr, M. L. Kamil, P. Mosenthal, and P. D. Pearson (Eds.), Handbook of reading research (pp. 246-280). New York: Longman.

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How Should We Combine Reading and Writing?

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For the past several years I've been complaining about how schools are organizing themselves with regard to reading and writing.

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Summary Sentence: A 3rd grade lesson based on the work of Judith Hochman and the Writing Revolution

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Featured Classroom Kellye Armstard Nov 16 2021

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You have to open this in a new tab to watch :)

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Math Course - Sentence Expansion || Gayden (04.20)

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You have to open this in a new tab to watch :)

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Many more examples and free webinars

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Writing Rope Guidelines for Instruction - Scope and Sequence

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Writing Rope Guidelines for Instruction - Scope and Sequence

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TWR_ Sentence Level Strategies_ All K-2 Templates.pptx

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TWR_ Revision Strategies- All K-2 Templates.pptx

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TWR_ SPO & SPO Scaffolds- All K-2 Templates.pptx

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One Sentence at a Time - Wexler and Hochman

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One Sentence at a Time - Wexler and Hochman

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YCIS Student facing  - Demo Lesson Slides

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YCIS Student facing  - Demo Lesson Slides (1)

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YCIS Student facing  - Demo Lesson Slides (2)

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Anita Archer - gives explicit examples of how to involve whole class

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When educators ask, what is the one action we can take to improve student learning, my answer is universal no matter the grade level or domain; Increase the Opportunities to Respond. This action is truly transformative. However, as with many instructional practices, HOW we implement the practice makes a difference. The following four Essentials of Active Participation can inform and guide our practice. I'll cover these and other ideas in my upcoming webinar, for which you can register here.

Essential No. 1: Request frequent responses from students.

While there are many reasons for asking students to respond during lessons, research has emerged with four clear and consistent benefits. (MacSuga-Gage & Simonsen, 2015; Van Camp, Wehby, Martin, Wright & Sutherland, 2020) First, as responses increase so do students' on-task behavior, a definite contributor to learning. Second, increased responses increase academic learning, the primary goal of education. If students are continually asked to rehearse information and to retrieve information from memory, retention is optimized. Third, perhaps the greatest gift to teachers, disruptive behaviors are reduced when students are responding academically throughout the lesson. Finally, increasing opportunities to respond increases the intensity of interventions.

You may be wondering how many responses might be desirable. Again, research provides some guidelines, though they need to be viewed as guidelines not mandates. (MacSuga-Gage & Simonsen, 2015; Simonsen & Myers, 2015) If simple responses such as unison choral responses, gestures, or holding up response cards are requested, effective teachers generally provided three to five opportunities to respond per minute. When the responses were more complex such as sharing with a partner or solving a math problem on a whiteboard at least one response per minute was elicited. In other words, many responses are requested in each lesson.

Essential No. 2: Require overt responses-saying, writing, doing.

To be effective, overt responses in which students say, write, or do something must be requested in all lessons in all subject areas. While thinking and silent reading, covert responses, might be embedded in a lesson, overt responses are necessary so we can monitor and check student learning, provide corrective and affirmative feedback, and adjust the lesson based on student performance.

You might want to adopt this motto that is posted and followed in many schools:
Every day, in every class, every student is participating by speaking, writing, or doing.

Essential No. 3: Involve all students.

To optimize learning and equity in our schools, everyone needs to do everything during instruction; everyone says, writes, or does something to show their understanding. In other words, a " No Opt Out " school policy should be adopted paired with classroom practices and expectations. Of course, this policy needs to be coupled with quality instruction, targeted scaffolds that set students up for success, and a safe environment in which students can take risks and make mistakes without embarrassment or bullying.

How might a school start on the Everyone does Everything (Feldman, 2021) path? The first step is to adopt a " No Hands Raised "policy. (Wiliam, 2014) Students can be taught to only raise their hands when the teacher directs them to raise their hands or when they seek clarification or elaboration from the instructor. The dangers of having students raise their hands and calling on volunteers are well known to teachers: 1) The more assertive, higher-performing students volunteer more often and receive more practice than their peers. 2) The same students volunteer again and again. 3) Over time, other students begin to opt out, reducing their learning. 4) The teacher does not have a valid measure of student understanding from this selective participation.

However, the most important reason for moving away from calling on volunteers or even non-volunteers is that these practices reduce the number of responses that each student makes in a lesson. Let's say that I have a class of 20 students and call on each student once. Each student would make one response. However, if ALL students say answers chorally, share answers with their partners, write down talking points before a discussion, solve a math problem on a whiteboard, or hold up a response card, each student would make 20 responses. More learning will occur with 20 responses versus one.

Essential No. 4: Structure the active participation procedure.

All high-leverage instructional practices, including active participation procedures, are intentional, structured, planned, and consistently implemented. Let's look at a number of common practices and the structure needed for optimum use.

Choral Responses

When answers are short and the same, teachers can request that students say the answer together. However, the teacher must act like the conductor of the school band or choir. The teacher must direct the students using a vocal signal such as "everyone" or a hand signal. Without a signal or cue, students will blurt out the answer and other students will simply mimic their peers.

Partner Responses

When answers are long and different, teachers might ask students to share answers with their assigned partners. Again, structure beyond "turn and talk" should be added. First, to avoid one of the partners dominating the partnership, the teacher should assign designations such as 1 and 2, A and B, or Blue and Red, so the teacher can direct one of the students to share the answer. Second, the teacher can give a job to both partners. For example, the teacher might say, "Ones, tell your partner the answer to the question. Twos, then tell your partner if you agree or disagree and why."

Class Discussions

Class discussions generally engage a small number of repeat participants. To increase the effectiveness and equity of discussions, the teacher can provide a well-planned prompt, give all students time to record their talking points, and have all students share their talking points with their partners. Thus, ALL students have been included. Also, having rehearsed their ideas, more students will join the formal class discussion

Hold-ups

Students can be asked to respond by holding up their whiteboards, their fingers to indicate the correct answer out of four, or their True or False response cards. However, if students hold-up their whiteboards, fingers, or response cards as soon as they formulate their answers, some students may copy their peers' responses. Instead, the students can form their answers on their desks and teacher can signal, "Show Me."

Truly, Learning is NOT a Spectator Sport.If our mission is to enhance student learning, we must request structured, frequent, overt responses from all students. May you and your school make increasing opportunities to respond a priority. Everyone will benefit. I hope you'll join me for my presentation on April 7.

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Learning Is Not a Spectator Sport: Essentials of Active Participation

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When educators ask, what is the one action we can take to improve student learning, my answer is universal no matter the grade level or domain; Increase the Opportunities to Respond. This action is truly transformative.

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Y5 Labsite Lesson Template YCIS Onsite Jan. 2026

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Whole Staff Sunflower YCIS Onsite Jan 2026 (1)

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Instructional Hierarchy, POWER Cycles; Unit Planning  YCIS Onsite Jan 2026

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Essentials for Structured Writing Programs

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Essentials for Structured Writing Programs