PledgeCents Preferred Partner Highlight: WriteSteps
The Vision
As a former educator turned entrepreneur, Suzanne Klein started WriteSteps with the dream of helping children become better writers.
Like many teachers, Suzanne found writing to be the most difficult subject to teach. When her school received a decrease in state writing scores, Suzanne decided to commit herself to improving her own writing instruction.Suzanne researched best practices of writing instruction and then designed her lesson plans to cover the standards using instructional best-practices. Her lessons were used throughout her grade level and they achieved major gains.
After experiencing remarkable success in raising test scores and student confidence, Suzanne realized she could make a larger impact by sharing her writing and grammar lessons with teachers and students outside of her own classroom.
A decade later, we still understand what it’s like to be in the classroom. WriteSteps’ team members are former teachers and dedicated individuals who are passionate about providing the most teacher-friendly curriculum and the best blended learning student platform for writing and grammar.
The Product
The eWriteSteps Teacher Platform is an evidence-based K-5 writing and grammar program that assists teachers with writing instruction using daily, standards-based lessons. It reaches all kinds of learners, even struggling writers, and inspires them to learn through mentor texts of authentic student writing samples.
eWriteSteps is teacher-friendly, easy-to-use, and eliminates endless planning and prep work. It is a digital curriculum for teachers that can be used with interactive whiteboards, visual projectors, computers, tablets, iPads, and document cameras. The daily lesson plans include everything teachers need to become skilled writing instructors. eWriteSteps is the most teacher-friendly standards-based writing and grammar program for K-5 on the market. It fuses best practices such as the 6 traits of writing, Writer's Workshop, Multiple Intelligences, and Bloom's Taxonomy.
Testimonials
"WriteSteps is our choice. All my training and experience is represented in WriteSteps: Madeline Hunter, 6 Traits of Writing, the Writer's Workshop, and then some. The program's authors have merged "the best of" practices!"
- Anne Giannascoli, Writing Coach, Manhattan Charter School
"I sincerely LOVE WRITESTEPS! This is the first writing program I have used in my 34 years of teaching that actually makes sense AND works. I used to dread writing but now I can't wait to do it!"
- Nancy Stahl, Kindergarten Teacher, Britton-Deerfield Elementary
"After searching for the right program for so long, WriteSteps is a dream come true. I still have tears of amazement streaming down my face. I was not expecting the results that I got. It was truly the best writing I have seen in my almost 30 years of teaching."
- Mary Fielder, 2nd/3rd Grade Teacher, Klager Elementary
We interviewed Terrie Morrow, who has been teaching for over 20 years, to share her experience with WriteSteps:
How do you utilize WriteSteps and CaptivationStation in your classroom? What are the benefits?
"We started using CaptivationStation in my 4th grade classroom in the fall of this year. We started out using it together with all of us on the same page at the same time. Within the first week my students were asking to have free writing time. Several of my students were asking to stay in for recess to finish their writing pieces. I began to explore the site further and realized this was a fabulous resource for allowing my students to move through at their own pace. Even better, this was a fabulous resource for equipping students with writing skills and tools in spite of my weakness in the area of writing. Writing a has never been my favorite subject as a student or a teacher. I have often felt inadequate in creating lessons that matter and in knowing how to score them when the students finished an assignment."
What would you say to another teacher who may be hesitant about trying a new #edtech product in their classroom?
"Through WriteSteps I have learned that the students don’t always have to finish a piece. I have learned that I don’t have to grade every piece. Through Write Steps I have been equipped with tools to pass on to my students. I love, love, love that the process for writing and the thinking about what to do with it is right at my finger tips with the click of a computer key. The planning plate of a teacher is full beyond the time constraints we are given. WriteSteps brings a breath of fresh air into my planning with the provided videos, lessons, assignments, and materials for every lesson. We are midway through our school year and most of my students are still requesting writing as their free time of choice. My students are using their learned writing skills across the content area. My students work together in collaborative groups to share ideas, coach each other and edit rough drafts. Most of this they are now doing on their own, acting as mini-adults in the conference room of learning together.
Coming full circle back to my home, I have seen the value of a good writing program, Write Steps and CaptivationStation, as a teacher and now as a parent. We have recently adopted a beautiful young girl whose weakest area in school is writing. Making plans to add my daughter to WriteSteps and CaptivationStation is the highest affirmation I can give to this program. I am blessed to witness my students and my daughter in their journeys of becoming Kids Achieving Greatness! "
