This book introduces Kākau Mea Nui 2.0: Writing Matters, a professional development (PD) model designed to help K–8 teachers improve student writing through culturally responsive instruction. Grounded in three years of field-tested work across the state of Hawaiʻi k-8 schools implemented with 80 teachers, the book offers practical strategies, flexible implementation options, and tools that support effective writing across content areas and reflect students’ cultural knowledge. Whether you’re a classroom teacher or providing professional development for others, this guide offers meaningful, easy-to-use resources that can be adapted for online, in-person, or hybrid use in schools across the state. Kākau Mea Nui 2.0: builds on the original Kākau Mea Nui 1.0 work that was designed to improve K-8 learners’ writing proficiency through implementation of a job-embedded PD program and coaching delivered at a “whole school level.” The project was implemented over three years at Waimanalo Elementary and Intermediate School (WEIS). It served 45 teachers and over 2,000 students over the three year project.

Adapted from the original project authors, Norma Jean Stodden, Sara Podlewski, Meghan Whitfield-O’Brien, Heather DeWood, Martha Guinan and the teachers of Waimanalo Elementary and intermediate School in Waimanalo, Oahu, Hawaii (2013), Kākau Mea Nui 2.0 builds upon this prior work and expands the PD to be available in an online learning management system (LMS) responsive to a post-COVID learning environment while also developing additional materials that are aligned with traditional ways of communicating that will resonate with the deeply held cultural beliefs and practices of the student population addressed– primarily through oral means.