November offered multiple opportunities for TWR to visit partner schools and districts to support their implementation efforts. Our faculty teams always enjoy visiting teachers and seeing TWR activities embedded in content to build knowledge and writing skills.
P.S. 21, Staten Island, New York
Launching a new curriculum is always a challenge, but the teachers and students at P.S. 21 are demonstrating how the Hochman Method can support and enhance writing, reading in any content. With a solid foundation in the Revolutionary® process, P.S. 21 teachers are seamlessly embedding the Hochman Method strategies into their new curriculum. Meanwhile, students confidently apply these familiar strategies to their work, strengthening their skills at the sentence and paragraph levels.
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Bronx High School for Law & Community Service, Bronx, New York
Our visit to BHSLCS was truly inspiring! TWR’s impact is evident throughout the school, from the prominent TWR banner in the hallway to the strategy posters displayed in every classroom. The administrators are deeply invested, actively engaged, and well-informed about TWR strategies. In seven classrooms, we saw teachers and students working together on a range of sentence strategies, SPO scaffolds, and summary writing. We were also fortunate to participate in the first of three school-wide TWR professional development sessions. Overall, the visit was both energizing and collaborative.
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Newark Public School District, Newark, New Jersey
Harriet Tubman Elementary School & Ironbound Academy
In November, members of the TWR faculty team visited two Newark schools: Harriet Tubman Elementary School and Ironbound Academy. At both schools, we saw ELA teachers engaging students with a range of TWR activities designed to enhance their curriculum. For example, in a fourth-grade classroom, students used a sentence expansion activity to add detail to their sentences about Native Americans in the 15th century. Meanwhile, fifth graders worked with an SPO scaffold to differentiate between a topic sentence and supporting details. These TWR activities were thoughtfully designed by Newark’s own Revolutionaries—a dedicated team of teachers who collaborate with TWR to create curriculum-embedded activities for district-wide use.
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Eastchester Union Free School District, Eastchester, New York
The TWR team traveled to Eastchester, NY to visit classrooms at Eastchester Middle School. During classroom visits of ELA classes, teachers led their students in using the Sentence Expansion strategy after reading chapters from Wishtree and A Long Walk to Water.
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Wayne County School District, Monticello, Kentucky
Monticello Elementary School & Wayne County High School
During our visit to Wayne County School District in Monticello, Kentucky, we saw TWR-trained elementary and middle school teachers implementing strategies such as SPO scaffolds, sentence expansion, and subordinating conjunctions. At Wayne County High School, we engaged with the ELA department to explore argumentative writing, with district leaders describing TWR as “their best investment.” Teachers shared their enthusiasm for accessing resources and integrating TWR strategies into their classrooms.
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TWR’s online resource bundles provided teachers with creative ways to build their students’ writing skills while focusing on the topic of gratitude.
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The Science of Gratitude (K-2 & 3-12)
Through an article paired with a series of TWR activities, students explore the benefits of gratitude. These resources are ready for immediate classroom use or can be easily customized to meet students’ needs. The 3-12 version encourages extended writing, allowing teachers to choose from a variety of planning outlines, including the new Pre-Transition Outline (PTO) and Transition Outline (TO) from The Writing Revolution 2.0.
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Gratitude Chain (K-2 & 3-12, English & Espanol) & Gratitude Journal (K-2 & 3-12, English & Espanol)
The Gratitude Chains provide students with an opportunity to express what they are thankful for on each link, creating a visual reminder of appreciation that grows over time. This collaborative activity fosters reflection and community-building.
Using TWR strategies, the TWR Gratitude Journal helps students articulate their thoughts on gratitude.
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Richard J. Bailey School, Greenburgh Central School District, NY
All of the materials in our resource library can be customized to meet students’ needs. Additionally, many of our resources are also available in Spanish.
National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Annual Convention, November 21, 2024, Boston, MA
Christine Teahan, Co-Director of Academics, presented two 75-minute presentations with Natalie Wexler, Co-Author of The Writing Revolution 2.0, entitled “The Writing Chapter: Sparking the Writing Revolution with the Latest Insights and Research.” Well over one hundred people were in attendance between the two sessions, and so many productive and hopeful conversations took place. The 2024 NCTE Annual Symposium was an inspiring and uplifting event!
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November courses were attended by educators working in education service centers, district offices, and schools around the country.
