Teaching Writing to Multilingual English Learners – Teaching Narrative Writing – FULL

Teaching Narrative Writing

July 8-11, 2024 at UCLA
Monday, Tuesday and Thursday in person, Wednesday virtual
For teachers of grades 4-12 multilingual

Teaching Analytical Writing (Literary Analysis)

July 15-18, 2024 at UCLA
Monday, Tuesday and Thursday in person, Wednesday virtual
For teachers of grades 7-12 multilingual

Teaching Argument Writing:  Synthesizing Multiple Sources

July 22-25, 2024 at UCLA
Monday, Tuesday and Thursday in person, Wednesday virtual
For teachers of grades 7-12 multilingual

The UCLA Writing Project is excited to offer three new writing workshops for Los Angeles area teachers.  Drawing on the decades of research-based work and evidence-based practices of UC Irvine’s Pathway to Academic Success Project, these days of hands-on professional learning will enhance teachers’ repertoires in the teaching of reading and writing.  These strategies are effective with all students, but our emphasis here is developing English learners’ abilities as academic writers.  

Each course—Narrative Writing, Analytical Writing and Argument Writing—guides teacher participants to teach explicitly the cognitive reading and writing strategies that propel English learners to grow as writers. Essential, this focus, given that those in the process of simultaneously acquiring an additional language need to negotiate the nuances of academic language arts as well as master core subject matter.

Elements woven into all UCLA Pathway courses:

• Closely reading content-rich texts 
• Modeling explicit teaching of writing
• Sharing cognitive strategies that become classroom routines
• Deciphering the writing prompt
• Revising rough drafts with color coding as an aid
• Responding to student writers and their writing

Special Incentives:  

• No charge for tuition
• Two-quarter units from UC Irvine for completing each 20-hour class
• $200 stipend for attending a follow-up Saturday in September
• Access to a rich array of classroom-tested lessons and online resources
• Ability to customize and curate resources for classroom use

Our funding permits us to accept 10 teachers of grades 7-12 multilingual for our Teaching Analytical and Teaching Argumentative courses; additionally, our Teaching Narrative course also welcomes upper elementary grades 4-6.  We will accept applicants on a first-come, first served basis—but we do need to know that everyone who joins these small workshops cares deeply about their multilingual students and the teaching of writing. Also, preference is given to those who are currently teaching/working with English learners or will be 2024-2025.  To apply for a space, please complete this brief questionnaire:

Registration is full but you may join our waitlist in case space becomes available.

Who are the workshop course leaders?   All are highly experienced UCLA Writing Project fellows devoted to their own multilingual students.

Teaching Narrative Writing, grades 4-12
Facilitated by Nataly Casillas and David Lopez

Students are enthusiastic storytellers. This series of workshops will begin with the research base for a cognitive strategies approach to reading and writing instruction.  It will focus on how to scaffold reading and writing and take a deep dive into revision strategies most important for improving narrative writing. We’ll draw on students’ own stories to create model texts—as well as familiar and less well-known published narratives.

Workshops include:

• Reading, discussing and responding to culturally relevant anchor texts 
• Bridging and creating connections between student learning and their lived experiences into their writing 
• Reflecting on examples of professional development presentations and classroom videos of teacher implementation
• Revisiting our own classroom instruction and finding areas to amplify and/or integrate cognitive strategies approach in reading/writing instruction.

Teaching Analytical Writing—Literary Analysis, grades 7-12
Facilitated by Javier Caldera and Nataly Casillas

What happens when we offer students opportunities to identify with literature studied in  our classrooms as well as windows for learning about the world around them? This interactive workshop models how to take a cognitive strategies approach to teaching reading and writing including:

• Planning culturally relevant and sustainable lesson sequences to engage all learners 
• Facilitating rigorous and exciting readings of text that are accessible to all
• Getting students excited about improving their writing through discourse and revision
• Responding to student writers with comments that help them improve their writing, specifically commentary, citing textual evidence, and grammar.

Teaching Argument Writing:  Synthesizing Multiple Texts, grades 7-12
Facilitated by Gurbir Kahlon and Angie Yi

Students need support synthesizing multiple sources to build strong and persuasive arguments. Join us as we use and learn research- based cognitive strategies to support students in reading and synthesizing multiple texts in arguments, including writing counterclaims. 

This interactive workshop models how to take a cognitive strategies approach to teaching reading and writing.  Focus areas include:

• Using cognitive strategies to teach argumentative writing, synthesizing multiple texts, and integrating counterargument,
• Engaging student writers by making connections to the texts and their lives,
• Implementing effective revision strategies to improve student writing,
• Teaching students revision strategies for precise writing, 
• Integrating contextualized language support to scaffold multilingual students’ academic literacy development.