CA BOCES Hosts Strategy Sessions for Writing Instruction with Angela Stockman

In August 2020, ELA teachers from our region were invited to join Angela Stockman, author of Hacking the Writing Workshop and Make Writing, for a two-day institute on multimodal writing instruction face-to-face and across the distance. Through synchronous and asynchronous learning opportunities, Angela led teachers in designing writing units and lessons that encourage students to use and explore hands-on approaches to writing.  
As a continuation of this work, Angela is will be supporting the region in strategy sessions that are targeted towards specific grade bands, with rotating offerings for Elementary, Middle, and High School levels. Each of the strands will have a focus for that particular level with an overarching theme of multimodal instruction in face-to-face and distance learning situations. Teachers will engage in three one-hour sessions during the course of the school year and will have access to a variety of self-paced professional development lessons created specifically by Angela for our teachers. 
Kicking off this series was the Middle School Strand that met after school on November 18, 2020. A handful of regional English teachers convened on Zoom with Angela around a focus on “Defining Structure and Form and Seeking Conventionality.” The next Middle School Session will be on January 27, 2021. Between now and then, teachers can access and work with Angela’s asynchronous resources. 

An outline of the remainder of the series is as follows: 

ELEMENTARY STRAND 
Multimodal Composition in the K-5 Writing Workshop 
In each session, participants will examine explicit curriculum design methods, tangible writing tools, and instructional strategies specific to narrative, research and information, and opinion and argument writing. 
December 2nd: Story Making 
​January 20th: Building Texts that Teach 
March 31st: Composing Opinions and Arguments 

MIDDLE SCHOOL STRAND 
Multimodal Composition in the Middle School Writing Workshop 
These sessions will challenge writing teachers to pursue and elevate the complexity of students' creative and academic writing. Each session will leave participants equipped to coach critical thinking, multimodal composition, and an iterative process, in service to more sophisticated thinking, learning, and written work. 
November 11th: Defining Structure and Form and Seeking Conventionality 
January 27th: Strategies for Coaching Critical and Metaphorical Thinking and Writing 
April 14th: Lifting the Quality of Revision and Editing 

HIGH SCHOOL STRAND 
Multimodal Composition in High School Writing Classrooms 
Participants in these sessions will learn how to leverage important constraints and help writers distinguish formulaic writing from coherent, sophisticated, and authentically influential work. All will leave with explicit strategies that move writers past mere replication in order to generate compelling compositions in every content area. 
December 9th: Equipping Writers to Assume a Professional Posture 
February 3rd: Tinkering with Structure and Using Conventions for Effect 
April 21st: Elevating Complexity and Scaffolding with Careful Intention 

Any teacher who may be interested in participating in this series can visit register.caboces.org to sign-up.  
For more information Angela Stockman, visit http://www.angelastockman.com/. 

By: Sarah Wittmeyer, CA BOCES Professional Development