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Rx Discovery for Writing Fundamentals

Rx for Discovery Writing Fundamentals

This professional workshop provides pre-school through third-grade educators with foundational understandings from brain research on how handwriting develops from a biological and cognitive development perspective and the instructional implications.
Hybrid workshop with pre-course work and one day in person.

Workshop Pre-Requisites

Teaching qualification for nursery school, Grades 1-3
The time required for assignments and prerequisite assignments has been estimated at 7 hours.

Specific topics include:

  • The neurobiological basis for handwriting
  • Handwriting and written expression development
  • Multi-modal development of writing skills
Teachers will explore how handwriting impacts the brain and examine the link between handwriting, reading, and spelling. Mediated learning is the overarching instructional approach used to facilitate the norms, learning tasks, and discourse in the educational context.
Training focuses on broadening educators’ conceptions of multi-modal instructional practices that support handwriting and writing success for all learners. Key handwriting and written expression instruction include graphomotor skills, orthographic-motor integration, orthographic processing, cognition, language, and writing traits.
Successful completion of this workshop will enable educators to use evidence-informed strategies to teach students basic writing skills.

Workshop Activities

  • Engage in lectures and practicum activities
  • Observe instructor implementing a lesson plan
  • Create a handwriting/written expression lesson plan
  • Implement a lesson plan while role-playing with other participants

Workshop Objectives

General:

Successful completion of this workshop will enable educators to use evidence-based strategies to teach pre-K to Grade 3 students basic handwriting and written expression skills

Specific: Upon completion of this course, the participant will be able to
  • 1. Understand the neurological basis of writing development and what educators should know about teaching handwriting

  •  Articulate why handwriting is important and how it is related to reading, spelling, written composition, and thinking

  •  Articulate the Big Picture of Writing and the Simple View of Writing

  • Understand the 6+1 writing traits and how to develop students’ writing traits

  • Use a multi-model approach to design and implement handwriting and written expression lesson plans

  • Implement Mediated Learning as the instructional methodology in handwriting and written expression instruction

  • Conduct informal assessments of students’ handwriting and written expression skills

Start the Workshop!

This is a lecture and laboratory course designed to train teachers to provide written language intervention in a group setting. Rx for Discovery Writing is specifically intended for students in grades 4-12 whose basic written expression skills are below expected standards.