New Writing Course: Introduction to Structured Narrative Writing

Pepper is releasing 4 new Writing Courses on August 3, 2015:

• Introduction to Structured Narrative Writing (Grades K-2)
• Introduction to Narrative Writing (Grades 3-5)
• Informed Opinion Letters for Teachers (Grades K-2)
• Argument Writing for High School

We will look at these courses over the next few blog posts. These courses were authored by staff from Accelerated Literacy Learning and are an addition to our current Pepper course, Argument Writing for Middle School.

The first is “Introduction to Structured Narrative Writing” for grades K-2. Broadly speaking, narrative writing is story writing, where the story includes a main character and an activity or experience, commonly called “the plot”. Narratives are characterized by having a defined beginning, middle, and end. 

In this course, participants will actively engage in the writing process by creating their own personal narrative. Additionally, there are opportunity to study mentor texts, reflect on learning, and relate experiences to lessons. The course requires 6 hours of work online with additional 4 hours offline. You can get more information and a full course outline by clicking here.

Check out this course and our other offerings in Math, English/Language Arts, and Special Ed, by visiting Pepper!

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The Teaching of Writing

The teaching of writing has changed over the years, partly due to the vast advancements in technology. We have moved from quill and parchment to blogs and texting. These changes definitely impact how teachers address the teaching of writing in the classroom. NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) has published their Beliefs about the Teaching of Writing as a guideline for educators. These beliefs include the following position statements:

• Everyone has the capacity to write, writing can be taught, and teachers can help students become better writers. 
• People learn to write by writing.
• Writing is a process.
• Writing is a tool for thinking.
• Writing grows out of many different purposes.
• Conventions of finished and edited texts are important to readers and therefore to writers.
• Writing and reading are related.
• Writing has a complex relationship to talk.
• Literate practices are embedded in complicated social relationships.
• Composing occurs in different modalities and technologies.
• Assessment of writing involves complex, informed, human judgement. 

You can read more about each of these position statements by visiting the NCTE Beliefs about the Teaching of Writing.

Teaching Writing can be challenging to teachers as they try to help students understand the above statements. Pepper has one Writing Course available now, Argument Writing for Middle School, and 3 new Writing Courses available beginning August 3. These courses focus on teaching narrative writing for K-5. You can read a more detailed description of each course in the Pepper Course Catalog.  We will look at each of these courses in future blogs. Be sure to check out all of our Pepper Courses!

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