To say that Writing Our World™ has been a labor of love is an understatement. Over the past four years, Redwood Literacy has been writing, teaching, and improving our written expression curriculum. After being inspired by reading The Writing Rope® we set out to create a usable and effective writing curriculum for our students in Chicago. What began as 15-minute mini lessons for Redwood Day students has morphed into a complete and robust written expression curriculum used at our day schools, in our small group intervention, and in classrooms around the world (seriously).

Writing Our World™ is a written expression curriculum grounded in research, improved through real classroom experience, and expanded with tools such as tier two vocabulary and assistive technology. After months of writing, editing, feedback gathering, and expert input Writing Our World™is complete! For the next few weeks, we want to introduce you to the people behind Writing Our World™ as they share their thoughts on this important curriculum.

Today we hear from Micah Matthews. Micah wrote many of the student materials found in WOW™ as well as served as curriculum editor. Micah earned his MFA in creative writing from Warren Wilson College and has spent his professional life at the intersection of written language and youth work. He teaches literacy and writing with Redwood Literacy.

Q: What excites you about the Writing Our World™ Project? What is special or unique about this particular written expression, reading comprehension, and assistive technology curriculum?

A: Writing can be daunting to teach and daunting to learn. There are so many elements that go into good writing, and that can make it an overwhelming task. But Writing Our World™ slows things down, focusing on one skill at a time. Students learn about complete sentences, then they learn how to avoid run-on sentences, then they learn about different sentence types, then they practice using conjunctions, etc. By breaking the writing process down like this, Writing Our World™ equips students with all the skills they’ll need to become confident writers – but it happens one skill at a time, making the experience less overwhelming and more fun.

The progression of skills is really intuitive and natural. If the goal is to teach students to compose a six-paragraph essay, it won’t do them much good to simply assign a writing project without first teaching them how to do it. Additionally, there’s no sense in teaching students to write an essay if they haven’t yet learned to write strong sentences. I love the emphasis on sentences in Writing Our World™. What is good writing if not a series of good sentences? There’s a lot of time spent on getting students capable at the sentence level, which is how they ultimately learn to write and revise longer pieces.

Q: From your perspective, why is it important for individuals to learn how to express themselves confidently and clearly through writing?

A: When we learn to write, we’re learning how to use language carefully and intentionally to make our thoughts and feelings known. This is a life-changing skill! The written word is powerful, and when you teach students to express themselves in writing you’re giving them a tremendous gift. Learning to write changes how we think – our vocabulary improves, and we have the language to communicate with clarity and precision. Learning to write also changes how we speak. As we learn to be more thoughtful about language, more careful about word choice, and more aware of tone, we’ll start having better conversations. Our interactions will be deeper, richer, and more rewarding.

Writing also teaches us about ourselves – there’s so much potential for reflection and self-discovery. Writers will often say that they write in order to discover what they’re thinking or feeling. By teaching students to harness the power of language, you’re helping them become better writers, of course, but you’re also helping them become better thinkers, better friends, and better employees. They’ll become more attuned to themselves and to others. All the student needs is motivation, and all the instructor needs is a tool. Writing Our World™ is a fabulous tool.

Want to learn more about Writing Our World™ or get it for yourself? Click here.

Want to see a free sample? Click below.

K-2 Writing Our World™ Sample

3-5 Writing Our World™ Sample

6-8 Writing Our World™ Sample

9-12 Writing Our World™ Sample