Course Description
Students will learn the components of written expression and how to design writing instruction for students with learning disabilities and students who struggle with writing. Specifically, students will learn how to teach foundation skills (e.g., handwriting, spelling, keyboarding), current methods for teaching writing, and how to improve comprehension through writing.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
The capstone assignment for students enrolled in the graduate-level course will be a synthesis of the research on writing that was covered throughout the course. Students will follow APA writing and formatting standards.
Athena Title
Teaching Writing
Equivalent Courses
Not open to students with credit in EDSE 5250 or EDSE 7250
Non-Traditional Format
Course will be taught 95% or more online.
Semester Course Offered
Offered spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
This course is designed so that students will be able to: 1. Explain the relation among content knowledge, writing, and comprehension. 2. Describe how writing instruction aligns with the Simple View of Reading. 3. Identify specific, research-based, writing-related instructional techniques for teaching students with disabilities (e.g., handwriting, keyboarding, written expression). 4. Master foundational techniques that reflect a structured, sentence-level approach to writing instruction. 5. Describe key instructional differences between systematic, explicit writing instruction, and a writer’s workshop approach. 6. Develop intervention materials that reflect principles of explicit, systematic, and intensive intervention. 7. Implement diagnostic assessments related to writing instruction.
Topical Outline
1. Introduction; How to Lead a Writing Revolution 2. Sentences: The Basic Building Blocks of Writing; Teaching Content is Teaching Reading 3. Handwriting + Sentence Writing 4. Sentence Expansion and Note-Taking 5. Writing in the Content Areas 6. Planning for Writing 7. Single-Paragraph Outline Applications 8. Putting Flesh on the Bones: Revising a Draft 9. Limitations of a Writer’s Workshop Approach; Revising Applications 10. Summarizing: Mining Texts for the Essentials 11. Moving on to Compositions: The Multiple-Paragraph Outline 12. Comprehension and Writing; Take a Stand: Writing Opinion, Pro-Con, and Argumentative Essays 13. Assessing Students Writing 14. Assistive Technology; Keyboarding 15. The Knowledge Gap
Syllabus
Public CV