WEX™ Professional Development

Use the WEX Method to accomplish measurable, sustainable change in students, teachers, and schools.

When you partner with WEX, we’ll set up a program that allows you to measure the impact starting on day one.   A WEX Trainer will work closely with your school or school system in order to customize a program of professional development and curriculum that meets your needs and your budget.

A typical WEX implementation for about 25 teachers includes 3 full day workshops, 4 coaching sessions for teachers in small teams, 1 half-day workshop for administrators and supervisors, 1 half-day coaching session for administrators and supervisors, and unlimited phone and email support for all participants. However, the services described here can be combined in any number of ways to create the right package for you.

For teachers, WEX recommends a combination of 3 workshops and 4 coaching sessions over the course of the year designed to lead teachers to a mastery of the WEX Method™ and WEX curriculum.

Workshops

Workshops move teachers through a steadily deepening understanding of how to put the WEX Method into practice and maximize student performance.

  • Instituting the classroom routines and student habits that drive a writing community
  • Developing strategies for struggling writers
  • Differentiating instruction by tracking skills and analyzing student work
  • Providing effective, useable feedback—both orally and in writing
  • Using writing to drive reading development
  • Implementing writing as a learning tool across the curriculum

Coaching Sessions

  • Implementation check of exact number of journals, drills, lessons
  • Model Lesson in one teacher’s classroom, observed by all trained teachers
  • Debrief of Lesson with all trained teachers
  • Looking at Student Work and Skills Tracking: analysis of student’s skills as presented in journal entries

Typically, administrators (and/or anyone involved in supervising and evaluating writing instruction) participate with the teachers in 2 workshops and 1 coaching session in addition to attending administrator-focused training sessions.

Workshops

Introduce administrators to the essential elements of The Writers’ Express to prepare them to discuss and supervise implementation with teachers and literacy coaches.

  • WEX Mindset and Responding to Student Work
  • Using the Supervisor’s Observation Protocol and Trouble-shooting Guide
  • WEX Assessment (Formative and Summative Assessment)

Coaching Sessions

  • Skills Tracking using student journals from actual classrooms
  • Walkthroughs and Classroom observations
  • Debrief of classroom observation
  • Trouble-shooting for particular teachers

Typically, literacy coaches (and/or anyone involved in supervising and evaluating writing instruction) participate with the teachers in 2 workshops and 1 coaching session in addition to attending literacy coach-focused training sessions.

Workshops

Provide literacy specialists with the tools to collaborate with teachers and lead them, focusing support on those elements that make the greatest impact on student performance.

  • Tracking and supporting implementation
  • Leading team meetings
  • Supporting inexperienced teachers
  • Intervening with struggling students
  • Pushing advanced students

Coaching Sessions

  • Skills Tracking using student journals from actual classrooms
  • Walkthroughs and Classroom observations
  • Debrief of classroom observation
  • Trouble-shooting for particular teachers

If there are paraprofessionals working with students in your school or district, WEX can train to their needs as well.

Workshops

Show paraprofessionals exactly what they can do to support implementation in the classroom and to help struggling students individually and in small groups.

  • Intro to The Writers’ Express – Classroom Routines and Feedback for Students
  • Responding to Student Work
  • Differentiation and Action Plans for Individual Students
  • Tracking Progress in Student Work

WEX Interim Assessment and Reporting

Provides data for administrators, teachers, and support staff about student skill development and, most importantly, offers specific guidance for curricular adjustments in response to the data. Each assessment includes:

  • Testing materials for distribution to students
  • Hand scoring assessment by WEX-trained scorers
  • Aggregated and disaggregated graphic reporting
  • Instructional recommendations in WEX curriculum

WEX 90-minute Remote Professional Development Sessions

A WEX trainer works remotely with a small group of teachers in real time via the Internet.

WEX Three Day Institutes

WEX trainers run an intensive three-day institute for a group of teachers at your school, or, individual teachers attend one of our three-day Summer Institutes at Simmons College.

Stand Alone Introductory Workshops

For groups of 25 teachers or more, WEX is happy to arrange one of the following single-session workshops at your school. These single-session workshops can be anywhere between one and three hours long. These focused workshops, delivered by a WEX trainer, are designed to give teachers a taste of WEX. In addition to gaining some insight into WEX, teachers will learn some new skills that they can take back their classrooms right away.

  • Why Won't They Write? Identifying the Obstacles and Overcoming Them
  • Teacher Feedback that Students Dig
  • Giving Verbal Feedback: Motivating Students and Guiding Skill Development During In-Class Writing Time
  • Helping Students Find Value in the Revision Process