This course will explore the idea of writing to learn in the context of the Common Core State Standards.

Target audience: U.S. K-12 educators. (If you write with students and/or staff in a K-12 setting, this class is for you.  Especially if you're not a language arts teacher. Join us.)

Prerequisite knowledge/skills:

• Solid knowledge of your grade level and subject area
• An interest in or healthy curiosity about the writerly domains of your content area
• Willingness to write with your students and to explore writing as a tool for deeper learning
• Willingness to share your work and ideas with others

Course dates: Oct. 10th - Nov. 18th, 2011 (6 weeks)

Course commitments:

Participants should be willing to:

• Share, learn, and teach as a part of this peer learning course
• Write and share their writing and compositions
• Commit to spend 4-6 hours a week on this course (Most of the time will be asynchronous, but there will be 2-3 optional webinars. They will also be archived for later viewing.)
• Attempt to write reflectively about their experiences and learning
• Create and share a writing assignment 

Course goals:

After this course, participants will:

• Have a deeper understanding of what the Common Core State Standards say about writing to learn and writing in the disciplines
• Have experience with writing as a way of learning
• Have explored their discipline/content area for the habits of writing present within
• Be thinking of ways to incorporate more writing into their discipline

Rough Schedule:

Week 1 - Introductions & Overview of Writing & Common Core SS

Weeks 2 & 3 - Writing to Learn - Habits and Ways

Weeks 4 & 5 - Writing Across the Disciplines - Exploring Writing for a Discipline

Week 6  - Sharing Your Writing Activities, Closing Thoughts

Full syllabus coming soon.

Course developer/facilitator:

Bud Hunt is an instructional technologist for the St. Vrain Valley School District.  He is also a certified language arts teacher with ten years of experience teaching writing and working with student writers of multiple ages. Bud writes and wonders all over the Web.

Bud lives with his wife and their three daughters in northern Colorado, USA.