Professional development in Writing is Thinking.

Writing Is Thinking through strategic inquiry (WITsi) is an approach to closing literacy skill gaps through direct instruction in writing strategies across the curriculum, and embedding them in the work of inquiry teams who analyze student work to see how the strategies have performed, make adjustments, and select and design appropriate instructional responses. WITsi incorporates and utilizes proven methods of school improvement, methods documented in The Atlantic’s “The Writing Revolution” (Oct, 2012) and in Strategic Inquiry: Getting Small for Big Results in Education (Harvard Education Press, 2013). WITsi was a prime turnaround strategy in NYC Renewal High Schools, as chronicled in Mind/Shift’s “Is it Time to Go Back to Basics with Writing Instruction?” (Feb 2017). Watch first hand testimonials about Strategic Inquiry in New York City’s Renewal High Schools. Read more about how the underlying approach to teaching writing works.

Currently we offer in-person and online workshops in the writing component of this work, Writing is Thinking (WIT). WIT improves student writing, content knowledge, academic vocabulary, oral language, reading comprehension, standardized exam performance, and student thinking. It is a particularly powerful strategy for English Learners, because it provides a concrete way to teach language embedded in content while also teaching students how the English language works.

Click on the videos below to learn about WIT with newcomers at John Adams High School.