Curriculum Design for Writing Instruction: Creating Standards-Based Lesson Plans and Rubrics

"The author′s conversational style hooks and easily engages readers into the four-step curriculum design process, well-sequenced array of design templates and lesson models, synthesis of the six traits and writing process elements, and integration of history, social science, and science content."
Carl Zon, Standards and Assessment Consultant/Coach
Connections, Sunnyvale, CA

"This book effectively walks educators through the standards-based lesson design process in a way that is clear, compelling, and achievable while simultaneously building content knowledge and extending understanding."
Ruth Goldhammer, Coordinator, Curriculum and Staff Development
San Mateo County Office of Education, CA

Design innovative and engaging lessons and units that produce measurable gains!

This clever new resource takes the reader step-by-step through the curriculum design process: from identifying national and local standards and translating them into user-friendly language to crafting meaningful writing assignments and assessments that effectively reveal student strengths and weaknesses.

Rooted in the six-traits model of instruction and assessment and illuminated by relevant classroom examples, Glass′s four-part process shows teachers how to:

• Identify grade-level content standards for writing
• Create a teacher rubric with a clear set of criteria for writing assessment
• Craft a student checklist that guides students through the unit and prepares them for teacher expectations
• Design lessons that help students achieve success

Replete with tools, strategies, examples and reproducibles, Curriculum Design for Writing Instruction is a valuable resource for any teacher who wants to boost student achievement in writing for any subject and for any grade level!  

Kathy Glass is a former teacher who consults and presents nationally with K-12 teachers and administrators at schools, districts, conferences, and county offices of education. She offers a blend of professional development (PD) topics to target audiences in areas affecting curriculum and instruction. To deliver customized PD, she assists educators with strategic planning to determine objectives. Then she tailors PD based on requested topics such as, but not limited to:

· highlights of the ELA Common Core Standards

· implementation of the ELA Common Core or other standards-based curriculum using a backward design approach

· essential understandings and guiding questions to frame curriculum and instruction

· differentiated tools and instructional strategies

· pre-, formative, summative, and self-assessments

· alignment of six-traits writing instruction and assessment to curriculum goals

· unit and yearlong curriculum maps

· text-dependent questions to facilitate close reading, and more.

To help educators directly translate what she presents into effective classroom practice that impacts students, Kathy can provide a variety of PD opportunities (e.g., presentations, lesson demonstrations and modeling, coaching, collaborative unit design, etc.).

She is the author of six books: Mapping Comprehensive Units to the English Language (ELA) Arts Common Core Standards, 6-12 (May, 2013); Mapping Comprehensive Units to the ELA Common Core Standards, K-5 (© 2012); Lesson Design for Differentiated Instruction, Grades 4-9 (©2009); Staff Development Guide for the Parallel Curriculum (©2009); Curriculum Mapping: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Curriculum Year Overviews (©2007); and Curriculum Design for Writing Instruction: Creating Standards-Based Lesson Plans and Rubrics (©2005). In addition, Glass has served as a reader and reviewer for Reader’s Handbook: A Student Guide for Reading and Learning (2002, Great Source Education Group) and as a contributing writer and consultant for the Heath Middle Level Literature series (1995, DC Heath and Co). Website: www.kathyglassconsulting.com; email: kathy@kathyglassconsulting.com