We have exciting news. We’ve submitted a proposal to present at the prestigious national SXSW EDU conference in Austin, TX, in 2015. This is a fantastic opportunity to spread the word about our successful writing program. You can help us get there by voting for our workshop!

Here’s why we want to be there: only 24% of American 8th and 12th graders have writing proficiency and the rest are at a massive disadvantage as they enter colleges and careers. Closing this gap is contingent on teaching writing with an interdisciplinary approach, not as an independent subject.

Here's what our workshop will focus on: innovative, teacher-created strategies to teach Common Core writing skills across the curriculum, a practice that improves engagement, critical thinking, and deep content knowledge.

Want to know more about our workshop plan?

We'll analyze and present solutions addressing two root causes of the low number of students with writing proficiency; the curriculum of teacher training programs and an academic framework that has long isolated writing instruction to specific courses. The session will address how the inclusion of daily writing initiatives can deepen content understanding and fulfill the need to meaningfully assess student understanding. 

Educators will leave the session with simple strategies to bridge the gap between the content knowledge core to their courses and the critical skills driven in the new Common Core literacy standards. After an overview of recent studies that reveal how simple, daily writing activities address these challenges, participants will benefit from examples of teachers inside and beyond the English classroom who are utilizing some of these practices that will be interwoven into the session.

The strategies presented in this session all originate in the classroom – where most of the strongest ideas do.  From countless observations of writing and non-writing teachers throughout the Capital Region, the presenter has analyzed many effective and ineffective writing methods and leads professional development in this area.  Some of these ideas evolved into our Writing Program. It’s been so successful, we want to share what we know and do with others nationwide!

So please, vote for us today and help us get to Austin!

To Vote:

  1. Set up an account here.

  2. Once you’re logged in, please go to this page and click on the thumbs up hand under “Cast Your Vote.”

  3. If you have one extra minute, please share a comment about why you think our program should have this national exposure.