Rx for Discovery Writing – Fundamentals Workshop

The Rx for Discovery Writing training is a didactic and practicum workshop. The professional learning provides pre-school through third-grade educators with foundational understandings from brain research on how handwriting develops from a biological and cognitive development perspective and the instructional implications. Specific topics include the neurobiological basis for handwriting, handwriting and written expression development, and multi-modal development of writing skills. Educators will explore how handwriting impacts the brain and examine the link between handwriting, reading, and spelling. Mediated learning is the overarching instructional approach used to facilitate the norms, learning tasks, and discourse in the educational context. The training focuses on broadening educators’ conceptions of multi-modal instructional practices that support handwriting and writing success for all learners. Key handwriting and written expression instruction include graphomotor skills, orthographic-motor integration, orthographic processing, cognition, language, and writing traits.

1. Evidenced-based: Based on a meta-analysis research from the Institute of Education Sciences (Teaching Elementary Students to Be Effective Writers: Practice Guide Summary; What Works Clearing House Practice Guide, 2018)
2. Philosophy: Multi-modal, structured approach based on “The Big Picture of Writing” and the “Simple View of Writing” (Berninger, 2002) within a mediated learning instructional framework (Feuerstein, 1996)
3. Instruction: Didactic and practicum learning experiences with hands-on, role-playing activities and lesson plan development
4. Assessment: Participants will practice implementing a writing lesson plan with a small group and receive feedback on their demonstrations. Proficiency with designing and implementing multi-modal lesson plans that include the 6+1 writing traits will be assessed as well as the use of mediated learning instructional framework.

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