>> Welcome! In this short video, we will explore the exciting point of views Professional Development offered by Writing A-Z and where to find help when you need it. We hope that by the end of this guided tour, you will walk away with new tools to support your work. As we explore, you may want to use the editable Note Catcher available here. At any point during this video tour, if you need time to reflect, practice or take notes, press pause, then press play when you would like to resume. We are so happy you're here. Let's get started.
Writing A-Z helps you make the most of your valuable time and maximize the impact of your instruction. Let's look at point of views PD available in Writing A-Z. First, we will locate the program resource menu in the upper left-hand corner of the home page. You will find all the Writing A-Z instructional resources when you click here. Let's dive in by selecting Professional Development.
You can filter the growing Writing A-Z of PD resources to find exactly what you need. For example, if I want to find resources to help me begin building a collaborative writing classroom, I can use the filters to choose my grade level, third grade. Then I can filter by Resource Type, video, and the Topic type, community. Here you can access Learn From Experts videos presented by thought leaders and subject matter experts that break down instructional best practices and pedagogy. There are also Put Into Practice videos presented by educators that highlight strategies you can apply to your instruction immediately. I will choose Building a Writing Community. In this Put Into Practice video, Coach Mandy shares strategies to help students feel safe and comfortable in a collaborative classroom.
>> Hi, I'm Mandy, a literacy coach. Let's talk about why building a community of writers is important and some things we can do to build a safe welcoming writing environment for our students and ourselves.
>> Research articles offer even more information about how to set up a collaborative classroom. To view an article, I will change the Resource Type to article and choose Building a Community of Writers. These articles share best practices and strategies backed by research. The printable Try These Ideas section offers suggestions for implementing these practices in your classroom right away. The last resource type I can select is audio. Writing A-Z audio recordings provide a listen-and-learn format which spotlights educators who share practical ideas about different PD topics and are excellent for learning on the go. Here, Jennifer Kulick and guest Janie Holtz discuss how to build a community of writers in the classroom.
>> For those of us who might not know, what is a writing community, and what does it look like in the classroom?
>> So one of the things I want to talk about first when it comes to what is a writing community is, what's a community?
>> Right.
>> That just looks so different to so many people. There's so many perspectives on it. So when we kind of look at what a community is, it's both a feeling and a type of relationship among people, and when you add writing to it, it's a community of writers that are working together to learn and share about writing. And even more than that is that these members of this community begin to have a sense of trust, a sense of belonging, safety and caring for each other which is so important, especially where we are today and you look at socioemotional learning and how can we tie this in? And the writing community is one of the best places to put it.
>> Professional Development resources are also embedded in units and modules to provide point of view PD as you need it to dive deeper into concepts before you teach them. For example, if I go back to the resource menu and select Lesson Plans, once I open up Unit 1, I can find PD related to that unit. Then I can see that unit's PD broken down even further when I go into each module. In addition to embedded PD, Writing A-Z provides a Support section in the resource menu that houses Guided Walkthroughs for program setup and a Program Guide. The Program Guide is a fantastic support for implementation. Go ahead and click on Writing A-Z Program Guide. Let's look at the section called How Do Teachers Use It? Use this guide to find answers to questions or to dive deeper into program features. All these Program Guide sections will be helpful as you get started using Writing A-Z.
We hope learning more about where to find support when you need it in Writing A-Z will help you find the right implementation path for you. This concludes our guided tour, but there is so much more to explore. Want to learn more about Writing A-Z? Check out other Writing A-Z videos found in the Related Offerings section. Learn more about our professional learning services or book your next training here. We hope that this short video has helped you learn about new tools to support your work. Teachers, thank you for everything you do.
