Teachers from across Northwestern Ontario will have the opportunity to participate in a two-day writing workshop presented by writing specialist Ruth Culham next week at the Rainy River District School Board’s annual “Summer Institute.”
The presentation, “Traits in Action” is expected to be provide the educators with valuable writing assessment and skill building knowledge.
“Ruth is a renowned writer and we are excited about the knowledge she has to offer at the upcoming Institute,” said Ed Cain, junior literacy and numeracy coordinator for the Rainy River District School Board.
“These two days of workshops will assist our teachers with some very powerful tools to aid our students in becoming better writers,” he added.
Culham is a recognized expert in the traits and writing assessment field and the author of “6+1 Traits of Writing: The Complete Guide, Grades 3 and Up” and the accompanying text for primary students. She has also designed trait-based books, videos, and other educational resources to assist educators in the classroom.
In her 19 years of teaching, Culham was selected as “English Teacher of the Year” for the state of Montana, has been conducting teaching workshops, designing national/international institutes for writing assessment and instruction.
Around 110 teachers from the primary and intermediate grades will have an opportunity to talk and work with Culham using her developed resources.
“Many of the teachers participating in the workshops are presently using her resources in their classrooms and have stated that through the use of these tools their students have become more effective writers,” noted Cain.
By meeting Culham, teachers and educators will be able to put a face to the author behind some of their favourite teaching resources, making text book teachings more meaningful.
Seven writing traits are presented in Culham’s resources, which should be carefully assessed to provide a clearer message to the understanding of student writing strengths and weaknesses.
She explores Ideas, Organization, Voice, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency, Conventions, and Presentation.
•Ideas: The ideas are the heart of the message, the content of the piece, the main theme, together with all the details that enrich and develop that theme.
•Organization: Organization is the internal structure of a piece of writing, the thread of central meaning, the pattern of writing;
•Voice: is the writer coming through the words, the sense that a real person is speaking to us and cares about the message;
•Word Choice: is the use of rich, colourful, precise language that communicates not just in a functional way, but in a way that moves and enlightens the reader;
•Sentence Fluency: is the rhythm and flow of the language, the sound of the words patterns, the way in which the writer plays to the ear, not just the eye;
•Conventions: are the mechanical correctness of the piece—spelling, grammar and usage, paragraphing, use of capitals, and punctuation; and
•Presentation: combines both visual and verbal elements. It is the way we “exhibit” our message on paper.
The workshops will be conducted at the Fort Frances High School next Monday and Tuesday (Aug. 20-21).
Fort Frances Times
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