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Best Practices in Literacy Instruction, Third Edition Review

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(More customer reviews)I begged my administrator to purchase this for me after attending the state reading convention. What a great resource! This provides practical, yet expertly researched ideas and solutions to common literacy problems. A great feature is included for pre-service and new teachers at the end of each chapter - questions and activities to evaluate current teaching.
My copy is all highlighted, dog eared, and sticky noted. It has been passed around the building for sharing ideas. This book should be a gift to each new teacher by their principal!

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Now in a thoroughly revised and expanded third edition, this evidence-based book distills the latest knowledge about literacy teaching and learning into clear strategies for helping all children succeed. Within a comprehensive conceptual framework, the field's leading authorities provide eminently practical recommendations to guide instructional decision making. The third edition has been fully updated with current research findings, policy issues, and program innovations. It offers significantly revised coverage of assessment, motivation, approaches to integrating different kinds of texts and multimedia resources, and adolescent literacy. New chapters address working with English-language learners and supporting teachers' professional development. Also featured is a new concluding commentary by Michael Pressley.

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Craft Lessons Review

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(More customer reviews)This is one of the best books I've seen for helping teach students to be better writers. It gives short minilessons that can give ideas and teach writing techniques with examples. I love it. I wouldn't teach writing without it

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Craft is the cauldron in which the writing gets forged.

Ralph Fletcher and JoAnn Portalupi argue that too often we concentrate on the beginning and ending of the writing process—conceiving and correcting—while leaving students on their own to make a thousand critical decisions in their writing about crafting leads, voice, structure, supporting detail, setting, mood, and character.

What elements of craft can we teach student writers, and at what age are they ready to learn them? This book answers both questions. Craft Lessons is the practical text for the over-scheduled writing teacher who wants to give students fresh challenges for their writing but doesn't have time to pore over dozens of trade books to do so.

There are three main sections in the book: one geared for teachers of primary students, one for teachers of grades 3-4, and one for teachers of middle school writers. This developmental structure allows teachers to go directly to those craft lessons most applicable and adaptable to their own students. Each of the 78 lessons is presented on a single page in an easy-to-read format. And every lesson features three teaching guidelines:Discussion—A brief look at the reasons for teaching the particular element of craft.How to Teach It—Concrete language showing exactly how a teacher might bring this craft element to students in individual writing conferences or a small-group setting.Resource Material—A listing of the book or text referred to in the craft lesson plus additional texts you can use and references to a passage, a poem, or a piece of student writing in the Appendixes.Craft Lessons also explores the context—the crucial classroom conditions—for successfully bringing rich ideas to young writers. It will appeal to both experienced writing teachers seeking new horizons for their writers and teachers who are relatively new to teaching writing.

Be sure to take a look at Nonfiction Craft Lessons: Teaching Information Writing K-8 and the When Students Write videotapes.

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A Quick Guide to Teaching Persuasive Writing, K-2 (Workshop Help Desk) Review

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(More customer reviews)In the last few years, I've been using the Calkins' Units of Study and have really seen a great difference in my first graders' writing. My colleagues and I have been thinking about using Persuasive Writing and this new book is a great tool for teaching this unit. The small size makes it really convenient to keep close-at-hand.

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Children have voices that need to be heard and ideas that need to be understood. Building on this premise Sarah describes why you should try a persuasive writing unit of study, describes two units of study for the primary classroom, and lists tips and ideas for helping students get their persuasive writing out into the world.

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Trait Crate: Grade 2: Picture Books, Model Lessons, and More to Teach Writing With the 6 Traits Review

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(More customer reviews)While this is a nice resource, it's overpriced for the content. A better purchase is buying two of Ruth Culham's books, Using Picture Books to Teach Writing With the Traits: K-2: An Annotated Bibliography of More Than 150 Mentor Texts With Teacher-Tested Lessons and 6+1 Traits of Writing: The Complete Guide for the Primary Grades. The first title is included in the crate, and the second more than replaces the very slim teacher guides in the crate. These two titles are a much better purchase. Many more picture book lessons can be found on the internet. (One excellent site is WritingFix.com.)
The lyrics to the songs from the Trait Crate CD are included in the second book. They are set to very familiar tunes (Row Your Boat, Mary Had a Little Lamb, etc.), so you don't need the CD. Posters of the 6 traits are easily made or found on internet.
While the Trait Crate is a good resource, it is somewhat pricey. With a limited budget, your money could be better spent.

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Teaching writing just got easier and more effective because of these sturdy crates. In them, teachers will find everything they need to help students use the six traits-ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions-improve their writing. Each crate contains an array of materials designed to engage students and enrich their writing experiences, including: 6 high-interest picture books hand selected for each trait 6 teaching guides filled with step-by-step lessons, graphic organizers, a scoring guide, and extension activities.Sing-Along Trait Songs, a music CD containing lively, trait-specific songs to share with your students. Includes a bonus track on presentation.6 full-color 17 x 22 posters contain lyrics to the songs on the CD Color-coded stickers for organizing classroom libraries and teaching materials. Using Picture Books to Teach Writing With the Traits: K-2, 112-page resource containing 18 step-by-step lessons and 150annotations
of new and classic books, organized by trait What's more, each crate comes with hanging folders one for each trait for easy, expandable storage for years to come.Second Grade Picture Books Ideas: Tulip Sees America Organization: A Busy YearVoice: Alice the Fairy Word Choice: The Best Class Picture Ever!
Sentence Fluency: Dizzy Conventions: Chameleon! For use with Grade 2.

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The Art of Teaching Writing Review

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(More customer reviews)Elementary and high school English teachers looking for a quick fix or complete list of how-to lessons and activities for hooking young writers will be disappointed by The Art of Teaching Writing by Lucy McCormick Calkins. What readers will find, however, is a coherent and thorough argument that challenges teachers to develop their own vision of excellence. On the opening page she states in no uncertain terms her definition of good teaching: "To teach well, we do not need more techniques and strategies as much as we need a vision of what is essential" (3). Through five sections and 29 chapters, it is her vision of what is essential that emerges as the overarching theme. Calkins helps students to experience a "wide-awakeness and curiosity" (516) of the world by placing their lives at the centre of their writing. The writing workshop is lauded throughout as a model that makes such an experience possible. Insightful anecdotes and glimpses into elementary and high school classrooms show how all phases of the writing process, including prewriting, drafting, sharing, revising, editing, are managed. Practical discussions on standardized testing, curriculum planning, and assessment are also included. The Art of Teaching Writing is comparable to other landmark texts in the field of writing instruction, including Nancie Atwell's In the Middle (1998) and Linda Rief's Seeking Diversity (1992). However, few texts offer the breadth and passion evident in Calkins' book. Although the book's length (and weight) might be initially daunting, it is a must read for anyone wanting to improve their understanding and use of the writing process and writing workshop. For more than twenty years, Lucy McCormack Calkins has been one of the most respected voices in the field of writing instruction. The Art of Teaching Writing is a testament to why this is the case.

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When Lucy Calkins wrote the first edition of The Art of Teaching Writing, the writing workshop was a fledgling idea, piloted by a few brave innovators. Now, as she brings us this new edition, the writing workshop is at the foundation of language arts education throughout the English-speaking world. This new edition, then, could easily have been a restatement, in grander, more confident tones, of the original classic. Instead, it is an almost entirely new book. Clearly, during the time in which Calkins's original ideas have spread like wildfire, her focus has not been on articulating and defending those ideas, but on developing and rethinking them. Respecting and responding to the questions which have arisen as thousands of teachers establish writing workshops in their classrooms, and drawing upon the latest knowledge in the field and her own intimate understanding of classroom life, Calkins has re-thought every line and every facet of her original text. In this new edition, Lucy has major new chapters on assessment, thematic studies, writing throughout the day, reading/writing relationships, publication, curriculum development, nonfiction writing and home/school connections. More than this, she has deepened her understanding of the writing process itself: "When I wrote the first edition, I saw writing as a process of choosing a topic, turning the topic into the best possible draft, sharing the draft with friends, then revising it. But I've come to think that it's very important that writing is a process not only of recording, but also of developing a story or an idea. Now, in this new edition, I describe writing episodes that do not begin with a topic and a draft but instead with something noticed or something wondered about. When writing begins with something that has not yet found its significance, it is more apt to become a process of growing meaning."

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Study Driven: A Framework for Planning Units of Study in the Writing Workshop Review

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(More customer reviews)Why isn't this book more widely read? Wood-Ray offers excellent direction to teachers - at all grade levels - who are seeking to improve the instruction of writing. Her central ideas are:
1.Texts should be used to mentor students to write real things in the ways real writers write.
2.Writing needs to be `studied' and not `taught.'
3.Teachers need to be writers and gatherers of mentor texts, but curriculum can not be determined before the students begin to study.
For teachers who want their students to write well, this is a text that lays out options for letting this happen. You'll want to spend a summer reading it and thinking, so that when you return, you'll be ready for superior kind pedagogy. It is rare for a book to speak so compellingly to all teachers, Kindergarten to College, but I believe that Study Driven is the wonderful exception.

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No matter what grade you teach, what state your school is in, and what level of diversity is present in your classroom, students have the right to be shown real-world examples of the kinds of writing they're asked to produce. For Katie Wood Ray, this foundational idea is also the beginning of an important way of approaching rigorous writing instruction.

In Study Driven Ray shows you that encouraging students to read closely can improve the effectiveness of your writing instruction. Detailing her own method for utilizing the popular mentor-texts approach, Ray helps you immerse children in a close study of published texts that supports their learning, leads them to a better understanding of the traits of good writing, and motivates them to become more accomplished writers.

Ray shows you how to set up your writing workshop to facilitate close study. From grounded understandings to informed practice to supportive resources, she demonstrates:
how to find a rich variety of texts that give students a clear vision of the writing you want them to do
how to strategically select texts to support whole-class learning as well as individual choice
how your teaching language gives structure to curriculum development and student learning
how good planning turns curricular standards and objectives into sensible units of study
why depth can be a more practical and effective curricular goal than breadth in writing instruction

Study Driven also gives you the ideas and resources for thirty units of study, ranging from genres to punctuation and appropriate across grade levels.

Get students into the habit of studying what they read to help them plan their writing. Give them examples of real-world texts as well as the structure, the space, the time, and the guidance to change and grow as writers. Give yourself Study Driven and find out how.

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Wondrous Words: Writers and Writing in the Elementary Classroom Review

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(More customer reviews)I've taught for 21 years, but I always felt like there must be a better way to teach writing to children. This book tells how. Katie Wood Ray gives specific techniques for teaching structure, ways with words, and teaches you to teach your students to read like writers. For all of this, she uses the most marvelous children's books, most picture books but some young adult novels. I have worked on increasing my library under her direction, and I'm having a ball watching my students learn to love to write.

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Writing Workshop: The Essential Guide Review

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(More customer reviews)I have taught writing for the past five years utilizing the teaching structure, writing workshop. I have also taught teachers how to teach using writing workshop and this has been the most helpful book in training new teachers. It is an easy read with lots of timelines, teacher guides, quick summaries at the end of chapters and practical advice. There are a lot of books out there about writing workshop, but this one is concise, clear and enjoyable to read. This is worth the money! Enjoy :)

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Is the writing workshop the only way to teach writing? No. There are a variety of approaches or programs, but none of them matches the writing workshop when it comes to growing strong writers. That's why, despite the pressures of testing, the writing workshop has endured and even flourished in thousands of schools across the country.

Today we face a time when as many as ten million new teachers are entering the profession. It is for these teachers, and others who are unfamiliar with writing workshop, that Ralph Fletcher and JoAnn Portalupi wrote this book - as a way to introduce and explain the writing workshop . . . to reveal what a potent tool the writing workshop can be for empowering young writers.

Above all Writing Workshop is a practical book, providing everything a teacher needs to get the writing workshop up and running. In clear language, Fletcher and Portalupi explain the simple principles that underlie the writing workshop and explore the major components that make it work. Each chapter addresses an essential element, then suggests five or six specific things a teacher can do to implement the idea under discussion. There's also a separate chapter entitled "What About Skills," which shows how to effectively teach skills in the context of writing. The book closes with practical forms in the appendixes to ensure that the workshop runs smoothly.

Fletcher and Portalupi's twenty-plus years working with teachers have convinced them that there is no better way to teach writing. This important book is the culmination of all their years of effort, a synthesis of their best thinking on the subject.

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Month-by-Month Trait-Based Writing Instruction: Ready-to-Use Lessons and Strategies for Weaving Morning Messages, Read-Alouds, Mentor Texts, and More ... Writing Program (Month-By-Month (Scholastic)) Review

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(More customer reviews)Every year brings on more new ideas to try in the classroom. While I knew the importance of writers' workshop, morning message, mini-lessons and genre awareness, including these in my daily lesson plans was a monumental task. This resource gave me actual samples of all of these as well as suggestions for literature to use with the lessons. It is well planned, featuring activities for each month with detailed writing projects to accompany the lessons. I am looking forward to implementing these in my first grade classroom, although the ideas could easily be used in both kindergarten and second grade.

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In this comprehensive resource, two veteran primary teachers share a multi-faceted approach to teaching writing that seamlessly combines the use of powerful mentor texts, strategy lessons, and the traitsNideas, organization, word choice, voice, sentence fluency, and conventions. Their yearlong planNorganized month-by-monthNincludes ideas for interactive morning messages, read-aloud suggestions, and more than 75 mini-lessons for teaching genre, grammar, the traits, and much more. Also included are reproducible planning sheets for a variety of genres and editing checklists, plus more than 250 literature suggestions. You'll find everything you need to help your young writers soar! For use with Grades KÐ2.

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Using Picture Books to Teach Writing With the Traits: K-2: An Annotated Bibliography of More Than 150 Mentor Texts With Teacher-Tested Lessons Review

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(More customer reviews)It's here! This is a teaching resource you won't want to be without. New to the traits? This book provides you with a definition of each trait that's user-friendly for teachers and young children. What follows is an annotation of a number of picture books that can be used for the trait. As if that isn't enough, each of the six main traits has three focus lessons and follow-up activities to get you going. For those of us that love teaching with the traits and use them faithfully, this book is an energizer. You'll find new picture books to add to your collection, plus old favorites with new ideas on how to use them.
As a resource person in my school, I'm often asked to do a lesson at the last minute. No problem! I pull out this magic book, look through the lesson, grab a picture book, and I'm good to go. Classroom teachers love the user-friendliness just as much as I do.
Ruth and Ray are to be applauded. In this age of test scores, change, and everything else that's going on, Using Picture Books to Teach Writing With the Traits is a breath of fresh air. It simplifies our teaching lives while making it exciting and fun for teachers and children alike.
Thank you, Ruth and Ray, for yet another excellent teaching resource!

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Good teachers have long recognized the power of using picture books as models of good writing. The short, focused, and tightly woven text mirrors the kind of writing they want their students to be doing. In this essential resource, the authors have organized by trait more than 150 annotations of new and classic books that will delight young studentsNand inspire powerful writing. Peppered throughout are 18 step-by-step, trait-focused lessons based on specific books.For use with Grades K-2.

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