What is EmPOWER?
EmPOWER™ is an instructional method for teaching expository writing to students in all grade levels. The approach was developed by Bonnie Singer, Ph.D. and Anthony Bashir, Ph.D. over many years of working with students, teachers, and schools. The goal in developing EmPOWER was to demystify and systematize the writing process so that teachers in all grades and all content areas could use the same instructional methods and strategies for teaching students to write. Our aim was to provide teachers and students alike with a common language and core set of strategies that reveal how expository writing works, thereby enhancing instruction and improving student performance.
Recognizing that writing is a multifaceted, problem-solving process, EmPOWER teaches the writing process explicitly within steps that build on one another:
 | Evaluate Dissect the assignment to find out what I have to do. |
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make a Plan Plan how to approach the task and choose strategies |
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Organize Represent and organize the relationships between ideas |
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Work Structure ideas and express them in writing |
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Evaluate Assess work to determine what needs to change |
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Re-work Decide how to make changes |
Within each of these steps, students answer a series of questions that are designed to guide them with "talking themselves through" each stage of the writing process, prompt them to make conscious choices about their writing, and remind them to use specific strategies to manage its many components. As an acronym, the word EmPOWER suggests an instructional approach that marches students through its steps in a linear, sequential fashion. In the classroom, however, students are guided to move through the steps of EmPOWER in a highly recursive fashion. At every step of the way, they are prompted to assess and make mindful revisions to their work, which fosters ownership and the ability to self-regulate their writing.
The EmPOWER method can be used by teachers and students in all subject areas and all grades that require expository writing, starting with the earliest expository text structure: the 5-sentence paragraph. With EmPOWER guiding classroom writing instruction, students learn that they must do and say (to themselves) certain things EVERY time they sit to write. They ask the same questions and use the same core set of strategies year after year, with the only difference being the complexity of the writing assignments they are given. Eventually, students internalize the steps and strategies so they are able to independently identify their assignment demands, set thoughtful goals, use effective strategies to plan and organize their thinking and ideas, develop well-structured text based on those plans, and assess and refine their writing based on clear criteria at each point in the process.
EmPOWER is neither a "program" nor a "curriculum". In that sense, it does not replace existing writing curriculum. Rather, teachers weave the steps and strategies through their own curriculum to meet their writing instruction goals. EmPOWER provides teachers with a natural means for differentiating instruction throughout the writing process. Writing then takes its rightful place for students as a vehicle for inquiry, higher-level thinking, and self-expression. This then empowers them to take their students where they want them to go as writers.