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We are thrilled to announce the release of The Writing Revolution 2.0! If you’re familiar with the original version, the changes you’ll see in this version include:
Alongside the updated book, we are excited to introduce our complimentary Book Resource Site. This companion site is organized by chapter and offers educators a selection of valuable resources to complement the book. You will find templates, content examples, posters, pacing guides, book study questions, and more. The Book Resource Site is crafted to be used alongside the book, providing easy access to the tools you need to implement the Hochman Method effectively.
TWR faculty continued to raise awareness about the power of the Hochman Method of explicit writing instruction at summer literacy summits hosted by districts across the country.
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Zionsville Literacy Summit
In early June, Christine Teahan Co-Director of Academics, and Senior Faculty Kiersten Peltier and Sean Cioffi presented three TWR overviews at the Zionsville Literacy Summit in Zionsville, Indiana. K-2, 3-12, and STEM educators at Zionsville Community Schools as well as educators from neighboring districts joined TWR to learn about the Hochman Method and how it can be embedded across all grades and subjects.
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Engage2Learn: Literacy & UDL Symposium
Alexandria Chalonec, Co-Director of Academics, and Samantha O’Brien, Senior Faculty, were welcomed in Cedar Rapids, Iowa by the Grant Wood Area Education Agency for their Engage2Learn: Literacy & UDL Symposium 2024. TWR faculty presented an overview of the Hochman Method and enjoyed meeting with educators from districts across a seven county area.
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Harriet Tubman Elementary School
On May 31, 2024, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Dina Zoleo, and Senior Faculty member, April Laing, visited Harriet Tubman Elementary School in Newark, NJ. They received a warm reception from the school’s dedicated staff and leadership team. Accompanied by Principal Davis, Vice Principal Kelly, and Julissa Estrella, an instructional coach, they discussed integrating explicit writing instruction to complement the existing educational strategies in the school building. With the support of Jazleen Othman, Newark’s District Director of ELA, they secured a partnership to implement the Hochman Method in grades K-4 starting this fall.
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Lavelle ES
During a recent site visit to John W. Lavelle Elementary School on Staten Island, New York, TWR’s Senior Manager of Implementation Madalyn Roig and Senior Faculty April Laing observed third-grade students practicing various TWR strategies.
In Ms. Miglorisi’s class, students practiced identifying keywords in a given topic sentence about the character Peter Pan to sort through relevant and irrelevant details.
In Ms. Salem’s class, students actively brainstormed character traits to describe characters from Charlotte’s Web on an SPO, demonstrating their understanding of the content.
In Ms. Guardino’s and Ms. Aboelnasr’s classes, students practiced expanding sentences and used the sentence expansion activity to revise an unelaborated paragraph.
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Lavelle MS
At John W. Lavelle Middle School on Staten Island, New York, the TWR team observed teachers using TWR strategies to reinforce writing skills, resulting in noticeable improvement in students’ writing and comprehension of the text.
In Ms. Husein’s 5th-grade class, students confidently identified appositives in a teacher-created sentence about The Witches and justified their answers using “the 2-check test”.
In Ms. Afaneh’s and Ms. Fishettit’s 6th-grade classes, students read The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind and reinforced key ideas from the text using sentence expansion and SPO scaffolds. Ms. Afaneh used sentence expansion to delve deeper into key ideas from the first few chapters. Ms. Fishettit used SPO scaffolds to help students determine specific and relevant evidence to describe how the main character’s humble beginnings shaped his journey.
In addition to welcoming many new districts to courses & workshops, TWR was honored to continue training educators from districts who have already begun their journey with TWR.
Highlighted below are some of the districts who enrolled educators in a training that began in June:
The Revolution continues to spread internationally! Educators from the following countries joined our June courses and workshops: Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Japan, and The Netherlands.
Look for TWR’s July/August combined issue at the end of summer. We look forward to sharing what we have been up to over the summer!
