Principal Sovis,

We as a faculty team thank you for this opportunity to demonstrate our knowledge on
best practice principles of providing students authentic reasons to write and publish within this
elementary school. This seminar will be taking place in the large multi-purpose room on
Saturday February 17th from 9am to 11am. We will be providing coffee and muffins for
everyone in attendance.
In order to make this experience beneficial, we would like the teachers to come prepared
with two student examples of published work, one copy being digital and one not (if possible).
Additionally, we would appreciate the following materials being provided during our first
seminar: a projector, a computer, a whiteboard, and dry erase markers. Our goal for this first
seminar is for our teachers to gain some new ideas that will promote authentic writing in their
classrooms and to encourage their students to publish within several mediums.

Thank you again for this opportunity,

Miss Walters
Miss Wier
Miss Fosler
Miss Hemry
March 3rd Seminar #2 Agenda
 8:50-9:00 Teachers will be arriving and and grabbing breakfast.
 9:00-9:20 Start the seminar with a quick review of the first seminar and having teachers
let us know if they used a best practice principal lessons in their classroom.
 9:20-9:30 The teachers will then get back into their groups they were in for the first
seminar and share more specific details from their individual lessons (if applicable).
 9:30-9:50 When teachers are sharing their individual lessons with other faculty members
they will be comparing and contrasting the digital copy and the not digital copy. This will
only be a discussion.
 9:50-10:00 They will write down 5 main points from their discussion for comparing and
contrasting.
 10:00-10:20 The faculty will share their main points with the other faculty members.
 10:20-10:40 Faculty and facilitators will be discussing points on where they can improve
in their lessons and steps for moving forward.
 10:40-11:00 Closing remarks and answering questions.
Dear Central Elementary Staff,

We are excited to provide an opportunity for all of you to learn more about the ‘best
practice’ principles for providing students authentic reasons to write and publish. Our goal is to
provide all of you with the skills you will need to teach your students about why they should be
writing authentically and how they can publish their writing.
We will be holding two two-hour long seminars - the first being on Saturday, February
17th from 9 am - 11 am and the second being on Saturday, March 3rd from 9 am - 11
am. These seminars will contain a lot of important information on how to better teach writing to
your students in the hopes that you will incorporate our ideas into your classrooms.
It is believed that students should be writing authentically, with purpose, and even
publishing their writing in both a digital and non-digital way. It is important that students
understand that their writing is valid and that we, as their teachers, believe that they are real
writers, (because they are!).
For this seminar, we request that each of you provide two examples of a students writing
- one being a digital example and one being a non-digital example. Please bring these
examples, (if possible), to the first seminar.

Thank you so much and we hope that you are as excited for this opportunity as we are!

Miss Fosler
Miss Hemry
Miss Walters
Miss Wier
February 17th Seminar #1 Agenda
 8:50-9:00 Teachers will be arriving and grabbing breakfast.
 9:00-9:05 Welcome everyone and give a brief reminder of the purpose of the meeting.
 9:05-9:25 Play Ted Talk video (already prepared).
 9:25-9:45 Introduce topic of encouraging writing and publishing as explained in article 1.
 9:45-10:15 Teachers will break into five groups of four where they will study the two
pieces of students work they brought and compare and contrast them to each other and
to articles the other teachers brought.
 10:15-10:20 Teachers will write down 5 main points from their discussion for comparing
and contrasting.
 10:20-10:30 Teacher groups will share with the entire group their five main points.
 10:30-10:50 Present teachers with ways and ideas to promote writing and publishing
among several mediums as explained in article 2.
 10:50-11:00 Closing remarks and answering questions. Let teachers know they are
encouraged to go out and implement some of these practices in their classrooms. If they
use some of these practices in their classroom we ask that they document and be
prepared to discuss them at the next seminar.
Seminar #1 Notes
Purpose: To promote authentic writing and publishing across different mediums in our students.

Ted Talk link: The Clues to a Great Story

Link to article 1:Why we should promote authentic writing

Link to article 2: How to promote authentic writing

Process Sheet:

https://www.ted.com/talks/andrew_stanton_the_clues_to_a_great_story/transcript?referrer=playl
ist-how_to_tell_a_story - How to Tell A Story.. Introduction for teachers at the first seminar

http://www.justaskpublications.com/just-ask-resource-center/e-newsletters/msca/its-amazing-
how-authentic-writing-can-motivate-k-12-writers/ - reasoning behind WHY authentic writing is
better & WAYS to do so. Article 2

https://writerswhocare.wordpress.com/2015/07/27/school-writing-vs-authentic-writing/

https://www.learner.org/workshops/middlewriting/images/pdf/HomeBestPrac.pdf

http://wonderteacher.com/why-you-should-publish-student-writing/ WHY article 1