Early Childhood Writing Strategies and Progress Monitoring System Teacher's Manual Black & White Edition

STEAM Into Writing! The Early Childhood Writing Strategies and Progress Monitoring System (ECWS) Teacher’s Manual Black and White Edition and the correlated student workbooks are program tools that align writing objectives with research-based Science or English Language Arts programs already in place. The program is suitable for children whose primary language is English, and Spanish, and for those who require Spanish or English language support. Although there are numerous writing programs available, there is no other program that addresses the writing objectives of the young learner as thoroughly as ECWS does. The lack of such a program makes it difficult for teachers in the primary grades to target and monitor the development of writing skills that can be directly correlated to objectives in the testing grades. Although writing proficiency is commonly monitored in non-early childhood grades due to state testing requirements, the use of a grade-appropriate scoring method is necessary to identify writing gaps as soon as a child begins pre-kindergarten. This manual addresses these challenges with chapters to build background knowledge for addressing writing/composition objectives in an early childhood classroom and with the tools to support teachers as they present research-based lessons and build foundational writing skills. The unique eight-step writing process from ECWS is introduced and writing genres are explained in the context of an early childhood classroom. ECWS promotes investigating topics and building academic vocabulary as the primary means of inspiring children to become independent learners who learn to apply STEAM skills and direct their own learning. The physical aspects and culture of the classroom are reviewed, and recommendations are made for creating a highly efficient learning environment that addresses student needs. The ECWS scoring system equips teachers with observable and measurable writing results for targeting interventions during on-the-spot checks and in mini-conference groups. The manual includes in-depth scoring rubrics to support the leveled placement of authentic writing samples. The ECWS progress monitoring system also includes a method to convert rubric levels into percentage grades for ease of tracking growth. The manual contains student writing samples and narrations to further support the method for assigning writing levels. It also includes a unique step-by-step process for setting SMART goals for a classroom, across grade levels, campuses, and school districts. The process encourages teamwork as a means of establishing consistency in addressing student needs. The templates for setting SMART goals are easy to use and provide teachers and administrators a means of establishing writing goals for the school year for each grade level from pre-kindergarten to second grade. Furthermore, the manual includes a detailed lesson sequence and sample lesson scripts with clear instructional objectives for carrying out interactive writing lessons in the classroom or through distance learning. Student reference tool samples and sample interactive writing charts are included in the manual to support the understanding of the interactive writing lessons. The lessons promote higher-order thinking skills and support the teacher at each step of the process. The ECWS teacher’s manual is correlated to the student workbooks and addresses state-recommended genres of writing for each grade level from pre-kindergarten to second grade. The workbook lessons spiral through three levels of writing including, beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Each level supports the use of self-directed learning, applying academic vocabulary, asking questions, and building research skills as a method for addressing grade-appropriate writing objectives. Every component was developed to support the needs of children and in response to the needs of teachers and administrators to collect evidence of student progress.