Module | Assignment | Description and Purpose | Points
1 | Interview a Teacher About Writing Instruction | Students will conduct an interview with a practicing teacher to learn about writing instruction and how teachers prepare to teach writing. The purpose of this assignment is to help preservice teachers understand the varied ways writing is taught across different grade levels and contexts. By gathering insights from an experienced educator, students will connect theory with classroom practice and gain perspective on instructional approaches, challenges, and preparation for writing | 100
1 | In-class Assignment: Scarborough Reading Rope group presentations | Students will participate in a jigsaw activity to review Scarborough’s Reading Rope, reinforcing their understanding of the many strands that contribute to reading comprehension. This activity will prepare them for an introduction to the Writing Rope. Students will demonstrate basic knowledge of the factors that support comprehension, including oral language proficiency, word reading accuracy, reading fluency, background knowledge, vocabulary, knowledge of text structures, and comprehension strategies. | 50
2 | Teach Letter Formation | Students will design and teach a lesson on letter formation to preschoolers or 3rd graders. This assignment emphasizes research-based principles for teaching handwriting, including both manuscript and cursive, and builds awareness of effective early writing instruction. | 200
3 | Task, Audience, Purpose Lesson | Students will teach a lesson that includes class discussion on determining task, purpose, and audience using a text (such as an audio clip, video, article, or book). They will demonstrate how to guide students in developing and producing writing suited to task, purpose, and audience, incorporating technology when appropriate. Students will facilitate collaborative conversations allowing students to talk about their ideas/writing before, during, and after writing. | 100
4 | Writing Process Lesson | In groups, students will create a lesson design that illustrates the stages of the writing process—prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing—while emphasizing that writing is a recursive, not linear, process. Each stage will be listed and summarized as part of the lesson design. | 100
5 | Stages of Writing Development (Assess and Design Instruction) | Students will analyze student writing samples to identify developmental stages (scribbling, letter-like forms, patterned letter strings, invented spelling, conventional spelling) and design appropriate instruction based on their findings. | 100
6 | Paragraph Writing | Students will write six paragraphs, each using a different organizational pattern: description, sequence, explanation, cause and effect, compare and contrast, and problem and solution. They will also use highlighting strategies to support paragraph development. | 100
7 | Opinion Piece and Mentor Text | Students will write an opinion piece and select a mentor text to guide their work. They will use exemplar texts to scaffold collaborative writing opportunities and strengthen their understanding of opinion writing. | 100
8 | Informational Piece and Mentor Text | Students will write an informational piece and select a mentor text to guide their work. They will use exemplar texts to scaffold collaborative writing opportunities and strengthen their understanding of informational writing. | 100
9 | Narrative Piece and Mentor Text | Students will write a narrative piece and select a mentor text to guide their work. They will use exemplar texts to scaffold collaborative writing opportunities and strengthen their understanding of narrative writing. | 100
10 | Teach opinion or narrative form of writing using mentor texts | Students will design and explicitly teach a lesson that models opinion, argumentative, or narrative writing. Students will facilitate collaborative conversations allowing students to talk about their ideas/writing before, during, and after writing. | 500
11 | Categorize and select Tier 2 words for instruction. | Students will review texts to identify Tier 2 words—high-utility academic vocabulary that supports comprehension across content areas. Working individually or in groups, they will categorize potential words, justify their selections, and choose those most appropriate for explicit instruction. This activity builds skill in targeting vocabulary that has the greatest impact on student learning. | 100
12 | Teach Vocabulary through dialogic read aloud | Students will explicitly teach vocabulary words within a text through a dialogic read-aloud. They will demonstrate understanding of vocabulary breadth (knowing many words), depth, and levels of word knowledge (unknown, acquainted, established). Students will apply logical criteria for word selection (utility, connections to known concepts, tiers of vocabulary) and identify, design, implement, and evaluate evidence-based approaches to vocabulary instruction at the word, text, and strategy levels, all within the context of text comprehension. Students will facilitate collaborative conversations allowing students to talk about their ideas/writing before, during, and after writing. | 200
13 | Assignments: Morphological analysis | Students will analyze words by breaking them into meaningful parts (prefixes, roots, suffixes) to understand how morphology contributes to vocabulary growth and reading comprehension. They will: 
● Identify common morphemes in selected texts. 
● Categorize morphemes by type (derivational vs. inflectional). 
● Explain how morphemes change word meaning, function, or grammatical form. | 100
13 | (In-class) Designing vocabulary supports for diverse learners | In an in-class accommodations activity, students will apply this knowledge to design supports for diverse learners. Working in groups, they will consider levels of word knowledge (unknown, acquainted, established) and create instructional adjustments that make vocabulary instruction accessible and effective for all students including students learning English as an additional language. | 50
14 | Teach Informational Text Structure (Content area with Graphic Organizer and BDA lesson plan) | Students will design and teach a lesson on informational text structure using a content-area text, a graphic organizer, and a Before–During–After reading plan. The lesson must demonstrate evidence-based comprehension instruction, including modeling metacognitive strategies, selecting appropriate texts, supporting vocabulary breadth and depth, and facilitating collaborative conversations. Students will also apply the teacher’s role as an active mediator of text comprehension before, during, and after reading. | 500
15 | Final: Review and Reflect | As a culminating task, students will review and reflect on what they have learned throughout the course about vocabulary, comprehension, and written expression. This reflection will serve as both a synthesis of key ideas and a demonstration of professional growth. To create a meaningful bookend to the course, students will revisit their first assignment—the teacher interview on writing instruction. They will compare their initial understanding of writing instruction with the knowledge and perspectives they have gained through course readings, class discussions, and teaching experiences. Students will write a short essay, presentation, or digital portfolio entry that explicitly links their initial perceptions of writing instruction (from the first assignment) with their final reflections. This creates a throughline from “what I thought I knew” to “what I know now,” reinforcing the recursive nature of learning and mirroring the reflective practice expected of effective teachers. | 100

Course Assessments | Course Outcomes
Attendance (In-Class Discussion, Exit Tickets) | 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14
Quizzes | 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14
Assignments | 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,11,12,13
Midterm/Final | 10, 14

Grade | Range
A | 100 % to 94.0%
A- | < 94.0 % to 90.0%
B+ | < 90.0 % to 87.0%
B | < 87.0 % to 84.0%
B- | < 84.0 % to 80.0%
C+ | < 80.0 % to 77.0%
C | < 77.0 % to 74.0%
C- | < 74.0 % to 70.0%
D+ | < 70.0 % to 67.0%
D | < 67.0 % to 64.0%
D- | < 64.0 % to 61.0%
F | < 61.0 % to 0.0%

 Face to face attendance is not required in an online course but it is important to stay engaged with course content.