Materials

Credit

Getting the Materials

You may watch our this workshop online via Video on Demand, or purchase videocassettes/DVDs and the print guide from our online catalog. The facilitor guide is available as a pdf under Support Materials on this Web site.

If you are participating in a group session, your facilitator will give you a copy of the print guide or request that you print the pdf for yourself from this Web site. Your facilitator will give you any instructions concerning meeting time and place, what you should bring to sessions, and work you should do outside the group sessions.

Using the Group Materials

The Support Materials and Web site provide background, activities, discussion questions, homework assignments, and resources to supplement Write in the Middle. They also provide information for facilitators to plan and structure group sessions, so if you're watching the videos with other teachers or facilitating a group, check out the Helpful Hints for Facilitators section in the Support Materials for discussion points and suggestions for activities to do before, during, and after viewing the workshops. If you're using the workshop for self-study, there are suggestions to help you optimize your viewing as well.

Each workshop session is designed to last about two hours and has a suggested format and a guide to discussion and activity breaks. The suggested viewing format includes background reading to do ahead of time to prepare for each workshop. This reading includes a piece tailored to each workshop titled "Key Practices To Observe," a guide to help viewers identify the specific teaching moments seen in the videos that are considered "best practice."

During the time participants are watching the workshop video, facilitators are encouraged to stop the video for discussion and activity breaks. Included in the Support Materials is a guide with suggested pause points and discussion questions to get you started. There are also suggestions for discussion and activities to do immediately after viewing.

The materials available on this Web site were developed to enhance, not to replicate, the viewing of Write in the Middle, so peruse the site and read samples of authentic student writing, listen to reflections from the teachers featured in the programs, or download handouts to use with your students.

Try your hand at evaluating a piece of student writing at Interactive Practice. You’ll find three samples of authentic drafts, written in different genres, by different students. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of each sample and then compare your assessment to those of another teachers.

In addition to the Web site, you can use Teacher-Talk, the workshop's email discussion list, to continue exploration of ideas outside the workshop session.