Teachers   

This course will teach you how to design five types of writing prompts (narrative, creative, expository, persuasive, and reading response) using a structured approach and grade-level-aligned examples.

This teacher professional development course will teach you about four essential components of an effective writing prompt, ensuring your students are supported in writing strong essays. You will learn how to generate narrative, creative, expository, persuasive, and reading response writing exercises. During your training, you will view examples at each grade level and learn a structured approach for each writing prompt design.

By the end of the course, you will be able to design your own writing prompt for a future lesson in an action plan and will leave the course with 11 tools, templates, and samples ready for use in your classroom.

Requirements:

Hardware Requirements:

• This course can be taken on either a PC, Mac, or Chromebook.

Software Requirements:

• PC: Windows 10 or later.
• Mac: macOS 10.6 or later.
• Browser: The latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox is preferred. Microsoft Edge and Safari are also compatible.
• Microsoft Word Online
• Adobe Acrobat Reader
• Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.

Other:

• Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.
• Editing of a Microsoft Word document is required in this course. You may use a free version of Microsoft Word Online, or Google Docs if you do not have Microsoft Office installed on your computer. Model Teaching can provide support for this.

Instructional Material Requirements:

The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online.

1. Types of Writing Prompts
   1. Learn the five types of writing prompts covered in this course, two methods for assessment them, and reflect on a past prompt you created or were assigned.
2. Narrative Writing Prompts
   1. Learn the components of a narrative writing prompt, then reflect on how to develop your own narrative writing prompt for a lesson aligned to your content or grade level.
3. Creative Writing Prompts
   1. Learn the components of a creative writing prompt, then reflect on how to develop your own creative writing prompt for a lesson aligned to your content or grade level.
4. Expository Writing Prompts
   1. Learn the components of an expository writing prompt, then reflect on how to develop your own expository writing prompt for a lesson aligned to your content or grade level.
5. Persuasive Writing Prompts
   1. Learn the components of a persuasive writing prompt, then reflect on how to develop your own persuasive writing prompt for a lesson aligned to your content or grade level.
6. Reading Response Writing Prompts
   1. Learn the components of a reading response writing prompt, then reflect on how to develop your own reading response writing prompt for a lesson aligned to your content or grade level.
7. Putting it All Together
   1. Using the samples provided, build your own writing prompt ready to be implemented in the classroom.
8. Applying What you Have Learned
   1. Get ideas on how to implement the concepts into your classroom, find a list of online resources that support the design of effective writing prompts, and read the research behind effective writing prompts.

What you will learn

• Analyze the five main types of writing prompts for students
• Identify the four components that all strong writing prompts have in common
• Design and implement a specific writing prompt plan using one of the five writing prompts introduced in this course

How you will benefit

• Your students will begin generating better essays because they have the correct guidance and expectations provided by your writing prompt
• You will be able to spend more quality time supporting students in their writing skills, focusing on the content that will help students excel more quickly
• Your lesson planning will be streamlined because you will be able to utilize the structured writing prompt approach using the provided templates found in this course

This course will teach you how to support students in developing critical thinking skills through a specific inquiry-based lesson structure that increases the rigor of your lesson activities.

This teacher professional development course will teach you about inquiry-based learning, also known as inquiry-driven learning, and how you can use it to transform your lessons using more dynamic and rigorous activities. You will learn how to generate questions to enhance inquiry in your classroom and ensure that all your activities increase rigor and critical thinking. You will analyze what inquiry looks like in the classroom and then develop a plan ready for implementation. The course also comes with several resources to support you in your inquiry-based lesson planning.

Requirements:

Hardware Requirements:

• This course can be taken on either a PC, Mac, or Chromebook.

Software Requirements:

• PC: Windows 10 or later.
• Mac: macOS 10.6 or later.
• Browser: The latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox is preferred. Microsoft Edge and Safari are also compatible.
• Microsoft Word Online
• Editing of a Microsoft Word document is required in this course. You may use a free version of Microsoft Word Online, or Google Docs if you do not have Microsoft Office installed on your computer. Model Teaching can provide support for this.
• Adobe Acrobat Reader
• Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.

Other:

• Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.

Instructional Material Requirements:

The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online.

1. What Is Inquiry?
   1. The meaning of inquiry-based instructional strategy
   2. The rationale behind using the inquiry-based strategy in the classroom
2. Teacher & Student Roles
   1. The role of the teacher in an inquiry-based classroom
   2. The role of the student in an inquiry-based classroom
3. A Classroom Snapshot of Inquiry-Based Learning
   1. What an inquiry-based lesson looks like in an actual elementary school classroom
4. Developing a Lesson Plan
   1. Learn the components of an inquiry-based lesson
   2. Develop an inquiry-based lesson outline
5. Developing Rigorous Questions
   1. Review the six levels of questions on Bloom's Taxonomy
   2. Use Bloom's Taxonomy to create questions at various cognitive thinking skill levels for your lesson
6. Developing Guiding Activities
7. Review the four levels of activities from Webb's Depth of Knowledge
   1. Use Webb's Depth of Knowledge to design activities at various levels of complexity for your lesson
8. Putting it All Together
   1. Using the sample provided, build your own inquiry-based learning plan for an upcoming lesson.
9. Applying What you Have Learned
   1. Get ideas on how to implement the concepts into your classroom, find a list of online resources that feature inquiry-based instruction ideas, and read the research behind this type of learning in the classroom.

What you will learn

• Understand the benefits and key components of building an inquiry-based lesson plan
• Evaluate effective inquiry-based education using classroom examples
• Design inquiry-based learning strategies following an explicit approach you will learn in this course

How you will benefit

• Your lessons will become more substantial, relevant, and rigorous as you plan with inquiry in mind
• Your classroom dynamic will become more energized and engaging as students get used to the inquiry process to have meaningful discourse in your classroom
• Help students engage with the content more, which can lead to increased and improved learning outcomes