By Leigh Buettler, M.S.Ed.
I consistently hear from teachers that their curriculum doesn’t really include writing instruction. Sure, there are writing prompts, but there often aren’t full lesson plans educators can use to actually teach students how to write. On top of this, many educators report leaving their preparatory programs feeling unprepared to deliver systematic, explicit writing instruction.
We talked recently with our colleagues at Redwood Literacy, thanks to Stern Center structured literacy coach Kendra Padilla, and thought we’d team up to bring you a powerful new resource to answer the call for a truly research-aligned writing curriculum.
Like the Stern Center back in 1983, Redwood was founded in 2018 by educators who noticed that too many students, especially those with learning differences, were slipping through the cracks. We think their free, research-based writing curriculum, Writing Our World™, is engaging for students, sustainable for teachers, and easy to implement without hours of prep. Every lesson is carefully structured and can be easily implemented without hours of preparation. In other words, it gives educators exactly what they need so they can focus on their students instead of spending hours planning.
To provide educators with even more support, the Stern Center is launching a new professional learning course, Teaching Writing That Works: Building Skilled Writers Through Evidence-Based Instruction, which I designed to make writing instruction clear, practical, and effective.
The Stern Center and Redwood Literacy share a vision: students as proficient, confident readers, writers, and thinkers, taught by educators who are supported and valued. Positive changes in education don’t have to come from the top down – they can grow from quality professional development, collaboration, and the sharing of resources that help teachers best focus their energy. By bringing together the Stern Center’s commitment to professional learning and Redwood’s innovative, free curriculum, we hope to serve you, our fellow educators, even better. Email me at lbuettler@sterncenter.org to let me know if this answers your need to build skilled writers – I’d love to hear from you!
