As educators, we are always looking for tools that can effectively support our students’ writing development. Enter The Writing Revolution 2.0—a structured, research-based writing curriculum designed to help students master sentence formation, expository writing, and analytical thinking. But does it live up to its promise? In this post, we’ll review the curriculum, explore its benefits and drawbacks, and determine whether it’s the right fit for your classroom.
What Is The Writing Revolution 2.0?
The Writing Revolution is a method that teaches writing through explicit instruction, scaffolding, and structured literacy techniques. It is widely recognized for its evidence-based approach to improving student writing across all subjects, not just English Language Arts. The newest edition, Writing Revolution 2.0, refines its approach and expands on key instructional strategies.
Key Features of The Writing Revolution 2.0
Explicit Instruction – Writing is taught systematically, starting from sentences and progressing to paragraphs and essays.- Cross-Disciplinary Application – This method can be used in various subjects, from science to social studies.
- Integrated Grammar Instruction – Instead of isolated grammar lessons, students learn grammar in the context of their writing.
- Assessment and Progress Monitoring – Built-in formative assessments allow teachers to track student progress.
- Professional Development – Extensive training and resources are available for teachers to implement the method effectively.
Pros and Cons
✅ Pros:
- Research-backed and evidence-based
- Works across multiple grade levels
- Effective scaffolding for struggling learners
- Encourages structured, clear writing
❌ Cons:
- No creative writing component
- Requires teacher training for full implementation
- Some activities may feel repetitive for advanced students
- Best suited for structured writing rather than exploratory writing
Who Should Use This Curriculum?
- Teachers looking to improve students' structured writing skills
- School administrators seeking a school-wide writing approach
- Occupational therapists collaborating with teachers on sentence-building strategies
Final Thoughts
Overall, The Writing Revolution 2.0 is an excellent tool for educators who want a structured, systematic approach to writing instruction. While it lacks creative writing elements, its explicit focus on sentence and paragraph construction makes it invaluable for developing students' foundational writing skills. If you work in an environment that emphasizes expository writing, this curriculum could be a game-changer.
Would you like more curriculum reviews like this? Let me know in the comments!
Resources Mentioned
FREE WEBINAR
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TIME STAMPS
00:31 Overview of
The Writing Revolution 2.0 01:00 The Six Core Principles of The Writing Revolution
02:15 Breaking down writing concepts into manageable segments
03:07 A 5-star curriculum? Key strengths of
The Writing Revolution 2.0 04:26 Sentence-level scaffolding and writing clarity
05:00 Assessment, professional development, and accessibility
05:47 What’s missing? Why it doesn’t include creative writing
06:08 The importance of teacher training for full implementation
06:59 How OTs can support writing instruction using this method
08:01 Final thoughts and a call for listener feedback
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Host
Cheri Dotterer
Cheri is an international speaker, author, and consultant who helps teachers, therapists, and parents build clarity, community, and competency around the barriers to writing success. Her book, Handwriting Brain-Body DisConnect, has remained in the Top 100 on Amazon since publication in Handwriting Reference and Learning Disabilities. It was also a Top 10 Finalist in the Author Academy Awards in 2019. In addition, she was nominated the USA 2022 Dysgraphia Expert of the Year by Global Health and Pharma Magazine. She has worked in many concentration areas as an occupational therapist for 30 years. However, it wasn't until starting her private practice that she found her passion for helping others understand this disability. In addition, she has been an adjunct instructor at several universities. She lives with her husband of 32 years. They have two adult children. Her heroes are Evelyn Yerger, her grandmother, and Esther, Queen of Susa. Together, we can grow 110 million leaders and hack dysgraphia by building skills, applying knowledge, and transcending futures.
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Speaker: Welcome to the writing glitch.
Hey, I'm Cheri Dotterer,
your classroom coach.
Today, we're going to be
reviewing the writing revolution.
If you listen to last week's
podcast, I had Christine Teahan.
. She is one of the coaches over at
writing revolution and they just
came out with Writing Revolution 2.
0. leT me share my screen here and I
will share a little bit about what 2.
0 has in it.
Alright, the Writing Revolution 2.
0. Let's take a look at
the table of contents.
Section one is talking about sentences,
section two, writing length, section
three, how to assess writing and adapt
the Huckman method in your classroom.
And then there's all kinds of appendices
that are outlining different activities
that you can do with your students.
So let's just glance through here.
What your teacher needs for the
roadmap for writing instruction.
The six principles.
What are the six principles?
Students need explicit instruction.
Sentences are building blocks.
When embedded in context of the
curriculum, writing instruction
is a powerful teaching tool.
The context of the curriculum drives
the rigor of the writing activities.
Grammar is best taught in the
context of student writing.
And two most important phrases in writing
process are planning and revising.
Very cool.
So this is not something that we
would use as occupational therapists.
This is something that teacher is
going to use to help build sentences.
Oh, there's they have some sentences
with the answers filled in.
Here we have, they have call out boxes,
sentence expansion and note taking.
So they're going to talk a little bit
about note taking in chapter three,
technical tip.
So they break some of the
ideas down and the concepts
of writing down into segments.
So we, here we have transitions, another
name for a noun and each at the end of
each chapter, we have discussion questions
and And notes resources, expository
writing, example one, it has it filled in.
So I didn't want to go through the book
page by page, but I wanted to, you to see
some of the chunks that are inside here.
Putting the method into practice,
leave no strategy behind,
transition, and then it has
a very in depth glossary.
As I review the Writing Revolution
curriculum, I want to give it
an overall rating of 5 out of 5.
The Writing Revolution is exceptional
research based writing curriculum
that systematically teaches
students how to write clear,
structured, and cohesive pieces.
It is particularly effective because
it integrates writing across context
areas, making it Power, a powerful
tool for educators in all subjects.
And then let's go through some details.
When we talk about research based
foundations, we talk about evidence
based cognitive science aligned,
strong emphasis on structured literacy
and integrated grammar instruction.
It has all of those pieces.
As far as the curriculum goes,
it's systematic, it's sequential.
It's cross disciplinary, it
emphasizes expository and analytical
writing, and it is really easy
to adapt it for your struggling
learners and your gifted students.
Sentence level focus.
It focuses on building sentences,
so it builds in scaffolding to help
you with building those sentences.
It focuses on syntax and clarity.
Oh, did I say that word funny?
Syntax and clarity.
Also, it really is looking at helping
students master creating sentences
and paragraphs and technical writing
and expository writing skills.
With professional development support,
as you heard last week on Christine's
episode, they have an extensive
professional development program
assessment of progress monitoring
every step along the way we have a
formative assessments that are built in.
It is data driven, so those assessments
are effectively communicated in an IEP.
It's accessible for diverse
learners, for English language
learners, for cultural relevance.
The one thing that this curriculum
does not have is creative writing.
So if you're working on creative
writing with a student, it
is not going to have it.
So when I took a review of it, I took
a look at some of the pros and cons.
We talked about it, it's research based,
it works across all grade levels, it's
easily integrated with all students
in all curriculums, it's explicit
instruction, it has strong scaffolding.
What it doesn't have, like
I just mentioned, it doesn't
have creative writing.
It requires the teacher to be
trained to fully implement it.
Just reading the book is not going
to be enough for you to get a really
broad understanding of what the
writing revolution has to offer.
Some of the activities may feel
repetitive or for advanced students.
It is focused on meaning proficiency.
It is not focused on, it's not a
gifted program that's going to touch
on something and move on very quickly.
It is there to help the learners
who are struggling a little bit
more than the gifted student.
It requires teacher buy in for
school wide implementation.
It, yeah, this is a very structured
curriculum.
There's not much wiggle
room on how to implement it.
Take that for what it's worth.
You saw a little bit of some of
the pages in inside the book.
So you have an idea what
the book looks like.
I read through the table of contents.
So you have an idea there.
But all in all, it's a
fantastic curriculum if you are
teaching expository writing.
For you as an OT, I would see if your
teachers have a copy of that book and
take out some of the sentences that
they're using and maybe glance through
it and learn some of the scaffolding
and how they are scaffolding or teaching
scaffolding for sentence structure.
It may benefit you to go through the book.
I don't know as an OT that I would
take the time to get fully trained
in it, but there might be something
that would be beneficial for you.
in their professional development.
There's a bunch of stuff
for free on their website.
So go check that out as well.
This has been Cheri Dotterer,
your classroom coach.
See you next week.
Oh yeah.
By the way, before I hang up,
make sure you subscribe
and send me a comment.
Tell me if you like these product
reviews or if I should stop doing them.
Let me know.