Teaching Methodology
Write Ahead uses a best-in-class writing instruction methodology, SRSD, that has consistently demonstrated writing improvements across grade and writing levels compared to control groups in over 200 empirical studies. The pedagogy was first developed over 40 years ago by Professors of Education at Columbia's Teachers College. Since then, it has been rigorously tested and continuously refined by professors, educators, and education professionals across the country. The pedagogy employs an explicit methodology that teaches students how to break down essays into their individual elements and then ensure each element fulfills its role. For each element, instructors provide guidance, modeling, and examples, and then encourage students to practice while providing real-time feedback.
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Dr. Leslie Laud, Write Ahead’s advisor, guided the curriculum development. She has researched, tested, and continuously refined the SRSD methodology over the last 20 years. Her methodology findings and advice are documented in her award-winning book Releasing Writers: Evidence-Based Strategies for Writing Instruction. SRSD is a responsive and systematic approach designed to explicitly teach writing to align with how children naturally learn. Dr. Laud holds a doctorate in curriculum and instruction from Columbia University, where she also taught teacher education courses. She conducts empirical research studies on the most effective ways to teach writing, publishes her findings in peer-reviewed journals, and presents at prestigious conferences such as Learning & the Brain, Society for Scientific Studies of Reading, International Literacy Association (ILA), National Council for Teachers of English (NCTE), and locally at Massachusetts Reading Association (MRA).
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More information about the teaching methodology Write Ahead employs:
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A proven and documented approach used in 11 countries, over 50,000 classrooms, in public and private schools, including some of the most elite schools such as Hunter Elementary for the Gifted and Talented (NYC).
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Optimized instruction road-tested by thousands of teachers, with many refinements along the way, guided by data on student outcomes and teacher feedback
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Evidence-based (Baker, 2009), endorsed by all major clearing houses (What Works, 2017), and validated by over 100 empirical studies (McKeown at al., 2016)
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After adopting the methodology, standardized tests (both PARCC and MCAS) showed improvements in holistic writing quality in every empirical study that has been published
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Helped catapult the Hopkinton, MA public school from ranking 145th (out of 900+) to 29th (out of 900+) (see Rankings tab) after adopting this writing methodology across the district.
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Evaluated, tested, discussed and referenced in hundreds of peer reviewed, empirical studies. Just a few of the articles can be seen on our Research page.
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Recognized by many Departments of Education as a best practice writing teaching methodology, including the MA DOE.
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The methodology is based on a set of Core Flexible Routines drawn from research, easy to implement and grounded in purposeful, meaning-centered writing. These routines are paired with a 6 stage instruction process:
