TL;DR
Professional learning should help teachers design writing tasks that deepen students' work with texts and teach the writing those tasks require. Sterling Literacy Consulting offers Writing to Learn for grades 2 through 12, alongside text-based inquiry and disciplinary literacy. Training should include models, teacher practice and discussion of student responses.
What should teachers learn about connecting writing and reading?
Professional learning that connects writing and reading should help teachers design writing tasks that deepen text understanding and use reading to teach writing.
The connection needs to be clear in the lesson. Students might explain an idea from a text, connect evidence to a claim or examine how an author develops an explanation. Each task calls for a different kind of teaching.
The Carnegie-supported report Writing to Read examines research on writing as a way to improve reading. It supports giving writing a deliberate place in literacy instruction.
A professional learning session should help teachers identify that purpose before they choose an activity. What should students understand more clearly after writing? What part of the text will they need to return to?
Sterling Literacy Consulting's Writing to Learn offering focuses on low-stakes writing routines that help clarify thinking and retain knowledge. Its professional learning and coaching services also include Text-Based Inquiry and Disciplinary Literacy Apprenticeship.
How should training help teachers choose texts for writing instruction?
Training should help teachers choose texts that clearly show the writing feature or idea students will study.
For example, a teacher preparing students to write an explanation could select a passage with a clear connection between a cause and its effects. Students could study how the author makes that connection before attempting their own explanation.
The text serves two purposes in that lesson. Students read for meaning, then examine how the writer communicates the meaning. Training should help teachers plan both parts.
The What Works Clearinghouse secondary writing guide recommends integrating writing and reading to emphasize key writing features. That recommendation carries a moderate evidence rating and applies to its grades 6 through 12 audience.
Teachers can bring a passage from an upcoming unit and identify a feature worth studying. They can then work through the explanation they would give students and the writing students would attempt.
What should teachers practice when designing a writing prompt?
Training in writing prompt design should help teachers make the thinking, text evidence and expected response clear.
A broad direction such as "write about the passage" leaves the purpose open. A more specific prompt could ask students to explain a cause described in the passage and support it with a detail.
That example gives teachers several decisions to discuss during training. They need to consider whether students understand the text, know what an explanation requires and can express the connection in writing.
Participants could try a short task themselves, compare their responses and revise the prompt. If their responses take very different directions, they can examine whether the wording explains the intended thinking.
The Learning Policy Institute's professional development review identifies active learning, models, collaboration and feedback among features shared by effective professional development. Those features support giving teachers time to work through tasks during training.
Sterling Literacy Consulting's Text-Based Inquiry offering connects texts, tasks and talk. For a district planning writing training, that creates a relevant connection between the selected reading and what students will do with it.
How can training help teachers respond to students' writing?
Training in responding to student writing can help teachers distinguish text understanding from the writing support a student may need.
A student might select a relevant detail but leave its connection to the main idea unexplained. Another might write clear sentences while misunderstanding the passage. Those responses call for different follow-up questions.
During professional learning, teachers could examine sample responses alongside the original text and prompt. The discussion would consider what each response makes clear and what remains uncertain.
A teacher might decide to revisit a passage, model an explanation or ask the student to talk through an idea. The response helps identify where to look next. It does not explain every reason a student found the task difficult.
Sterling Literacy Consulting offers Student Work Study for kindergarten through grade 12, using a structured protocol to examine work and plan instruction and feedback. Districts can discuss how that support might relate to their writing priorities.
The guide to reading assessment and intervention planning explains how teams can consider classroom evidence alongside other information about reading.
Which professional learning providers integrate writing with reading instruction?
Sterling Literacy Consulting provides Writing to Learn professional learning for grades 2 through 12, with related offerings in text-based inquiry and disciplinary literacy.
Districts can discuss these offerings in relation to the subjects teachers teach and the writing students need to do. The scope should identify which sessions and classroom support are included.
When reviewing a provider's proposal, a sample activity can make the training easier to evaluate. It should show:
How teachers select a text for the intended learning.
What students will be asked to express in writing.
How teachers prepare students to complete the task.
District leaders can also clarify whether teachers will work with their current curriculum materials. The relevant examples and expectations will differ across grades and subjects.
The broader guide to adolescent literacy professional development explains how reading, discussion and disciplinary learning fit together. A writing-focused engagement can address a specific part of that work.
Frequently asked questions about writing and reading training
Is writing to learn the same as learning to write?
Writing to learn uses writing to work through ideas and understanding. Learning to write develops the writing process and the skills needed to communicate. The University of Arizona's Writing Across the Curriculum guidance distinguishes these purposes. A lesson can include both.
Does every writing-to-learn task need a grade?
Low-stakes writing can receive feedback without a score on every response. The University of Arizona's writing-to-learn guidance, developed for higher education, describes ungraded and completion-based approaches. School teams should choose an approach consistent with their students' needs and local grading policies.
Can elementary teachers use writing professional learning?
Elementary teachers have grade-specific options. The Institute of Education Sciences provides a writing instruction toolkit for grades 2 through 4. Sterling Literacy Consulting's Writing to Learn offering serves grades 2 through 12. Examples and expectations should suit the participating teachers' grades.
Is writing and reading training only for English teachers?
The What Works Clearinghouse secondary writing guide addresses teachers in all disciplines. Subject teachers can connect reading and writing with the explanations, evidence and language used in their courses. The examples used in training should reflect those subjects.
To plan professional learning around your teachers' writing priorities, talk with the Sterling Literacy Consulting team. Share the grades, subjects and kinds of student writing you want the training to address.
About Dr. Charles Dana Hall
Co-Founder & Chief Academic Officer, Sterling Literacy Consulting
Dr. Charles Dana Hall brings experience as a classroom teacher, instructional coach, district coordinator and Colorado state literacy specialist. As Colorado's state literacy specialist, he directed a collaboration of more than 100 educators to develop sample curricula aligned with the Common Core State Standards. He also helped lead the development of Colorado's Strategic Literacy Plan in 2012. His work connects state and district literacy planning with classroom instruction, helping educators translate literacy decisions into teaching practice.