Every Child a Writer (ECAW) is the only National Literacy Coalition (NLC) approved comprehensive elementary program of writing instruction and assessment. Straight Up Writing is the NLC approved companion program for middle and high school students.
Both programs ensure student mastery of the English Language Arts Standards.
ECAW is a differentiated writing program in which instruction is tailored to each student's readiness and needs. The developmental continuum of writing skills and strategies are organized within ECAW's eleven writing stages. Through the practice of Differentiation by Design, every student is challenged at their own level, and instruction is accelerated to ensure maximum growth.
The Every Child a Writer instructional model includes both a structure for teaching as well as a wealth of instructional resources for daily modeling and guided practice of the standards. Every skill in the ECAW Continuum includes a consistent, learner-friendly definition, rationale for learning, and models in authentic writing.
In ECAW, students apply the writing process to create specific, developmental writing products. Each of these products is based on the purposes for writing: Informative/Explanatory, Opinion/Argument, Narrative Real Events and Imagined Experiences, and Responding to Reading. At each stage of ECAW, students gain greater skills and confidence in writing for these essential purposes, all while learning to plan, draft, revise, edit, and publish.
Writing has taken its place alongside reading and mathematics as an essential access skill for success in the 21st century. The ECAW Proficiency Validation Plans (PVPs) allow teachers and students to share the knowledge of the targets (skills) each student has mastered as well as those yet to be mastered. Every product in the ECAW Continuum of Stages includes its own PVP. An easy-to-use web interface allows teachers to maintain and access each student's writing goals in real time.
In ECAW, authentic and frequent assessment guides instruction. A consistent cycle of instruction is followed by a prompted writing assessment. This enables teachers to know exactly where their students are functioning and, most importantly, what comes next!
ECAW has been positively impacting student achievement for more than a decade. A recent study of Colorado schools implementing ECAW revealed student growth at double the rate of the state. Read the study here.
The standards provide a great degree of focus and purpose for writing. ECAW takes these standards to the ultimate level - where teachers and students deeply understand what makes good writing. By providing consistent target definitions and concrete models of the standards in action, ECAW takes the mystery out of teaching and learning to write.
ECAW Professional Development builds both the knowledge base and practice for teaching these targets.
