Our EKC Global Chats series is a space for sharing, asking for support, and brainstorming together.

Each month, we will tackle a different hot topic in literacy with an expert in the field, and then join in some global camaraderie and discussion. It's free to join!

Chat: May 17 | 7:00-8:00am EST
Writers As Thinkers: Evidence-Based Writing Instruction in International Schools

Here’s what we’re seeing: many schools making real progress in research- and evidence-based reading instruction—but writing? It can be the first thing that gets squeezed, something to fit in rather than a core way students develop and express their thinking.

Join EKC for a global conversation with Leslie Laud, author of Executive Skills and Writing Instruction and founder of Releasing Writers (formally thinkSRSD), as we explore what it really takes to center writing in today’s classrooms. We’ll dig into the role of executive skills in writing development; how writing instruction can move beyond isolated strategies toward more responsive, learning-driven work; and what it looks like to support all learners—including multilingual learners—as writers and thinkers.

Facilitators

Hannah Fernweh

Hannah Fernweh is a lifelong learner specializing in best practices for multilingual students, translanguaging, culturally relevant pedagogy, and students with exceptionalities. She has worked in public and international schools as a teacher, coach, and department head and has a particular passion for meeting the literacy needs of linguistically, culturally, and neurologically diverse learners. Currently, she is delving into how different writing systems can impact literacy development within the brain and how exceptionalities can influence how one acquires languages and literacies. When supporting schools, Hannah guides educators to understand how the brain learns to speak and read in order to develop clear, practical plans to support diverse learners.

Dr. Leslie Laud

Dr. Leslie Laud pioneered using the science of writing, particularly SRSD, as a teacher in 2008 and began publishing peer-reviewed studies on the science of writing. She now keynotes at national education conferences, and has served as a Principal Investigator on major federally funded grants from IES and EIR which studied how to adapt evidence-based approaches such as SRSD for wide-scale She is also the author of Executive Skills & Writing (Guilford Press, 2025). This book integrates the broad science of writing framework into a user-friendly framework for bringing the science of writing to their classrooms easily. Following her doctoral training at Columbia University in system-wide school change, Dr. Laud now leads Releasing Writers’ national team of PD providers, partners multiple state education agencies and collaborates with leading experts in the science of writing instruction and assessment. What began in a handful of classrooms has now reached thousands of schools, districts, and state systems. Dr. Leslie Laud’s work bridges research and practice—helping schools translate the science of writing into practical, scalable classroom solutions that improve student outcomes.