Please note that there are three opportunities related to writing instruction below.
Utah Teaching Writing Symposium Join an inquiry-based professional learning facilitated by Central Utah Writing Project Teacher Fellows in partnership with USBE. Choose your writing-instruction focus, engage in collaborative learning and action research, and receive personalized coaching to implement your plan in your classroom.
This symposium is designed for Utah English Language Arts educators in grades 6-12. The purpose is to support your implementation of effective and evidence-based writing instruction through professional learning that is centered on teacher agency, inquiry, coaching, and reflection.
You will select a strand of focus for your learning at the symposium.
Symposium Details: Dates: May 12 - 13, 2025 Times: 8:00 - 3:30 pm Location: Brigham Young University, Provo, UT Cost: Free! The cost for a substitute for the two days will be paid for by USBE. If you live 75+ miles from BYU, your travel and lodging will be provided.
Participant Expectations: In addition to your attendance at the two days of the symposium, you will be expected to develop and implement a student-facing instructional plan and participate in a coaching cycle based on your symposium strand of focus, inquiry, and learning. You will work in collaboration with a writing fellow coach to develop this plan in virtual one-on-one consultations. The dates of these consultations will be scheduled directly with your assigned coach.
* Pre-implementation meeting with coach (between June to mid August) * During-implementation meeting with coach (mid Aug - mid Oct) * Post-implementation meeting with coach (mid Oct - mid Nov) In December 2025 (date TBD), you will virtually meet with all the participants in your strand to collectively celebrate and share your learnings and next steps.
Participation in the two-day symposium + full coaching cycle (May - December) = 1.5 USBE credits
APPLICATIONS DUE BY 9:00 AM MST ON FEBRUARY 18, 2025 (#1 attachment)
APPLY NOWhttps://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe4dF1o0MK1o_ws_3f7rcZvTTcR3XVrTiBOPaI78fnMKubZiQ/viewform
Contact: Naomi Watkins Contact Email: naomi.watkinds@schools.utah.govmailto:naomi.watkinds@schools.utah.gov
Supporting Writing Instruction for Admin and Coaches Join for a half-day professional learning event designed for secondary (grades 6-12) school and district administrators, instructional leaders, and coaches. Learn how to champion and support evidence-based writing practices in your school or district.
Event Details: Date: May 12, 2025 Times: 8:00 - 12:30 pm Location: Brigham Young University, Provo, UT Cost: Free!
Agenda:
* 8:00: Registration * 8:30: Welcome & Keynote Address * 9:45 - 11:00 - Session #1: What is Evidence-Based Writing Instruction? * 11:00 - 11:15 - Break * 11:15 - 12:30 - Session #2: How to Support Implementation of Evidence-Based Writing Instruction * Note: This half-day professional learning event will be held in tandem with the Utah Teaching Writing Symposiumhttps://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe4dF1o0MK1o_ws_3f7rcZvTTcR3XVrTiBOPaI78fnMKubZiQ/viewform?usp=sharing for Secondary ELA educators. (#2 attachment)
REGISTRATION CLOSES MARCH 31, 2025
Contact: Naomi Watkins Contact Email: naomi.watkinds@schools.utah.govmailto:naomi.watkinds@schools.utah.gov
Writing Benchmark Field Testing
We are still in need of more students to participate in the writing benchmarks. If each student completes two writing benchmarks, we are still about 4,000 short of the required number of essays for 7th and 8th grades and 2,000 short in grades 3-6 and significantly more than this if students only take one writing benchmark. We will not be able to provide writing benchmarks in future years if we do not get at least 5000 student responses per essay to train the scoring engine. At this point, we do not need LEAs, schools, or teachers to sign up, just please encourage teachers to use the writing benchmarks.
The writing benchmark field test window will be from February 18th through June 6th. Students will be able to take two writing benchmarks - one argumentative and one informational. The prompt that they get will be randomized.
Teachers will administer the writing benchmarks through the RISE portal just like they would administer any other benchmark. However, there will not be a score report, and teachers will not be able to see students' essays. Instead, all the essay responses will be used to train the scoring engine to allow for automatic scoring starting the 2025-26 school year.
Teachers can have students access the RISE writing training test available on February 18th at https://utahrise.org/training-tests.html before having students take the benchmark. This is a great opportunity to walk students through the new writing prompts and discuss what they are expected to include in their writing.
You can also access the RISE writing rubrics at https://utahrise.org/resources#folder=RISE_Writing_Rubrics. There are informative and argumentative rubrics for each grade level and a 3-8 conventions rubric. These on demand writing rubrics are a great resource as you teach students how to write. We will also be posting annotated writing samples for grades 5 and 8 that align with the new rubrics on the RISE portal within the next month. They can also be used by other grades to consider the new rubric expectations.
Although considered on demand writing, the writing benchmarks in grades 3-8 and summative writing assessment in 5th and 8th grades do not have to be administered in one setting, and we recommend no more than a 45-minute writing session to counter test fatigue.
Contact: Megan Lopez at megan.lopez@schools.utah.govmailto:megan.lopez@schools.utah.gov or Dallas Brooks at dallas.brooks@schools.utah.govmailto:dallas.brooks@schools.utah.gov
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Naomi Watkins