Lehigh Valley Writing Project

This four-hour course begins on Monday! Don't miss Remote Teaching: Tools, Tips, & Hints! Act 48 approved!

A collection of PBS and WPSU educational resources to help support educators, students and families adapt to learning and teaching at home is now available thro...ugh WPSU, thanks in part to a partnership between the Pennsylvania Department of Education and the state’s seven public media stations. http://ow.ly/beTK50z3ASi See more

Teachers, are you looking for Act 48 hours? Check out PSU's 4-hour course: Remote Teaching: Tools, Tips & Hints! Dates: June 15 & 17, 2020 Times: 7 9 pm Location: Students are able to attend class from your home using Zoom Video-conferencing software.... This four-hour training session will provide basic tools for any educator to use today for remote teaching. While learning about the tools, they will be learning best practices, tips and hints. Register now as space is limited! https://register.outreach.psu.edu//publicCourseSectionDeta

GRADUATE CREDIT COURSE OPEN FOR REGISTRATION! Join Lehigh Valley Writing Project Fellow, April Silimperi, via Zoom as she shares her passion for using high-quality children’s literature to teach writing. During the week of July 13-17th, participants will develop a deeper understanding of how to use Mentor Texts to notice the choices and moves authors make and inspire students to use these literary examples to improve their own writing. Learn how to plan mini-lessons organize...d around the characteristics of good writingfocus, content, organization, style, and conventions. This robust course is a must-take for every writing teacher! Using your best loved children’s literature and Dorfman & Cappelli’s (2017) Mentor Texts, Second Edition Teaching Writing Through Children's Literature, the course will cover how to..... Connect literary devices to specific writing activities Define what a mentor text is and establish a rationale for using mentor texts to teach writing Examine a variety of children’s literature and identify characteristics of effective mentor texts for classroom use as scaffolds for student writing Select quality mentor texts and identify focus lessons for teaching writing across the domains for focus, content, organization, style, and conventions Design focus lessons across the domains using literature to promote the craft of writing Use fiction and nonfiction texts as a catalyst to promote narrative, informational/explanatory, poetry, and opinion/argumentative writing This class can begin you on your journey of completing Penn State Lehigh Valley's Writing Specialist Certificate Program. Contact Nicole Moschberger [email protected] for information on how to enroll in this 3-credit course!

Ian Bell is the son of LVWP Fellow, Stephanie Bell, and he is a finalist for a contest in NYC: NY Governor Cuomo's office is running a competition for a PSA to get people to wear masks. Ian's PSA is one of 5 in the finals (of 600 entries). To see all 5 and (hopefully) vote for his, go to https://coronavirus.health.ny.gov/node/2871.

A collection of PBS and WPSU educational resources to help support educators, students and families adapt to learning and teaching at home is now available thro...ugh WPSU, thanks in part to a partnership between the Pennsylvania Department of Education and the state’s seven public media stations. http://ow.ly/beTK50z3ASi See more

How do we maintain our sense of connectedness with one another in this new digital landscape?

Jennifer Serravallo provides some great tips here!

KQED explains the importance of social distancing. Check out their educational resources that help students gain perspective on the pandemic.

Greetings Fellows & Friends! Please join Penn State LVWP in creating primary sources that capture the individual & shared experiences of living through the COVID-19 Pandemic. Whether you keep a detailed daily journal, a line-a-day journal, or just spend some time capturing your feelings during this time with captioned photos on social media, it is important to recognize that one day these documentations will comprise primary sources of information for those seeking to underst...and this period of history. Journals, letters, photographs, & personal narratives offer much to the study of history, including the power to humanize events and build empathy across generations. With that knowledge in mind, LVWP is offering a number of ways to share the stories, experiences, photos, and reflections of our community during this historic time period. Today, we are providing a four-square tool to help facilitate daily conversation around current events and to empower students to process their observations, questions, thoughts, and actions during the on-going quarantine period. Feel free to share the tool widely & don't forget to share how you are creating primary sources around the COVID-19 Pandemic. Wishing you well! Nicole https://docs.google.com//1u68uYzWzsl5bdwcPo1DmafIgds/edit

A terrific activity to keep students engaged and thinking critically about the historic times we are living! #LVWPcovid19crowdsourcing

Fellows & Friends, Our Spring Newsletter is days away, but I feel it important to address the unprecedented and ever-changing landscape WE ARE currently traveling as educators, partners, parents, & citizens. Many of us are being tasked to stretch and grow our teaching practices from face-to-face implementation to remote instruction only. Others of us are being asked to provide review materials for students in the immediate interim so that they do not experience a "corona sli...de" over the next several weeks. WE ARE all facing challenges: from our own lack of instructional resources to the deep inequity that prevents some of our students from participating in remote learning at home. WE ARE all in limbo about what comes next. My goal in writing to you, one of the most caring and committed groups of educators that I know, is to create a support network for one and other as we navigate through the uncertainty ahead. Please use the hashtag #LVWPcovid19crowdsourcing across all media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram) to share ideas, ask questions, provide thinking partnerships, and tap into the expertise that is our community. WE ARE on the front lines of an educational change that is as inevitable as it was previously unimaginable. However, WE ARE teachers. WE ARE writers. WE ARE learners. And, perhaps most importantly, WE ARE leaders. I know that with all of you leading this shift in education, our students are in the best possible hands. Be well, colleagues & friends, and remember that WE ARE not in this alone! My respect and admiration, Nicole

Making like readers & writers with LVWP on this gorgeous summer day!

First part of LVWP’s 3-Part Summer Learning Series: TDA Instruction! What a wonderful morning of collaboration, problem-solving, and synergistic planning! Thank you, LVWP Fellows & Friends!

Summer Events at Penn State Lehigh Valley--Come network in a relaxed, rejuvenating atmosphere while learning about some of today's most relevant topics in education!