California Literacy Teachers Depend on Step Up to Writing
The California English Language Arts/English Language Development Framework states the overarching literacy goal for students is to:
“Effectively express themselves as writers, discussion partners, and presenters, and use digital media and visual displays to enhance their expression.”
Step Up to Writing® has been a reliable resource for California literacy teachers to help students reach this goal for many years. Created for K–12 students, Step Up to Writing is a comprehensive program of multisensory writing strategies, methods, and supports for increased writing success across all content areas. The solution’s explicit and systematic approach to teaching writing is designed to provide clear strategies that develop and sharpen students’ writing skills. California districts already using Step Up to Writing include:
- Fruitvale School District
- New Jerusalem Elementary School District
- Sierra Sands Unified School District
- Marysville Joint Unified School District
- Galt Joint Union High School District
This research-based writing program can be used with any reading curriculum, and it supports the individuality of every learner to understand each step of the writing process. Beginning writers explicitly learn and practice each phase of the process. Common expectations and language for writing across early grade levels builds confidence as students grow into more advanced writers and the writing process becomes fluid and automatic. The program allows for differentiated instruction, writing strategies, support for writing across all content areas, and flexible implementation options.
“Step Up to Writing is beneficial to teachers and students in three ways: First, it provides for teachers a clear understanding of the writing process and how to explicitly teach narrative and expository writing. Next, it engages all students by providing hands-on, kinesthetic strategies. Finally, the strategies can be used throughout the grades. Clearly, Step Up to Writing is what America needs to become a nation of writers and meet the rigors of our standards.”
Karen Valdes, Assistant Superintendent of Educational Support
Services, Temecula Valley Unified School District, California
Updated Fifth Edition Available for Fall 2024
Fully revised, the fifth edition of Step Up to Writing helps California teachers meet literacy state standards. Updates include:
- The Teacher’s Guide and Assessment and Implementation Manual now feature new alignment to state standards, a better pacing guide, and additional differentiated instruction for students.
- Accompanying Student Handy Pages are fully interactive guides for students allowing them to use Handy Pages as a reference and a tool to help build their writing portfolio. Teachers can use them alongside work in the classroom or as a homework tool.
- Completely redesigned, intuitive online educator interface. California teachers can access thousands of resources in Step Up to Writing through an easy-to-use, searchable online platform. The new interface makes it easy for administrators to manage their implementation and saves teachers time in finding the tools and resources they need to implement Step Up to Writing with fidelity.
Supporting the Individuality of Every Learner
California teachers know that to help every student, they need to be able to differentiate instruction based on each child’s unique needs. Grade-level Unit Maps provide a sequence of instructional strategies to help students improve their writing skills and meet California ELA standards. Additionally, Step Up to Writing has an explicit focus on supporting K–12 students in producing organized, clear, and coherent writing.
