Awakening Brilliance in the Writer's Workshop


Book Description

Master teacher Lisa Morris invites you to share her secrets of success with writer's workshops. After years of experimenting with the workshop model, she has developed the most effective ways to apply it in the classroom, yielding higher test scores and increased student engagement. Through practical, step-by-step instruction, Morris demonstrates how to use writer's notebooks, mentor texts, the writing process, and the 6 traits. Specific topics include: setting up the classroom for workshops creating a writing curriculum creating guidelines, expectations, and lessons for using notebooks helping students select ideas, brainstorm, and plan assigning writing partners and organizing sharing getting students to self-reflect creating process and product portfolios finding resources for publishing holding effective writing conferences The book also offers an array of invaluable tools, such as student writing samples mini-lessons for each stage of the writing process lesson plans pacing guides for dividing your time during the workshop sample charts to help you stay organized suggested classroom guidelines and handouts a list of mentor texts, organized by what you can use them to teach (e.g., adjectives, alliteration, onomatopoeia, beginnings, endings, strong verbs, sensory details) quotations on each stage of the writing process to motivate students




Awakening Brilliance in the Writer's Workshop


Book Description

Master teacher Lisa Morris invites you to share her secrets of success with writer's workshops. After years of experimenting with the workshop model, she has developed the most effective ways to apply it in the classroom, yielding higher test scores and increased student engagement. Through practical, step-by-step instruction, Morris demonstrates how to use writer's notebooks, mentor texts, the writing process, and the 6 traits. Specific topics include: setting up the classroom for workshops creating a writing curriculum creating guidelines, expectations, and lessons for using notebooks helping students select ideas, brainstorm, and plan assigning writing partners and organizing sharing getting students to self-reflect creating process and product portfolios finding resources for publishing holding effective writing conferences The book also offers an array of invaluable tools, such as student writing samples mini-lessons for each stage of the writing process lesson plans pacing guides for dividing your time during the workshop sample charts to help you stay organized suggested classroom guidelines and handouts a list of mentor texts, organized by what you can use them to teach (e.g., adjectives, alliteration, onomatopoeia, beginnings, endings, strong verbs, sensory details) quotations on each stage of the writing process to motivate students




RTI Meets Writer′s Workshop


Book Description

Tiered instruction for our neediest writers! There’s no shortage of books on how to set up and run a writing workshop. But where’s the book on teaching our students who struggle most or just aren’t engaged? And where does RTI fit in? Lisa Morris provides the answers in this practical resource on implementing tiered writing instruction in Grades 2–6. With strategies for each RTI tier, this how-to guide will help you Easily incorporate RTI within the writer’s workshop framework Nurture confident writers with well-crafted, differentiated lessons Plan daily, weekly, and year-long lessons with low-stress diagnostic, formative, and summative assessments Save time with engaging and effective curriculum-based measurement (CBM) techniques and tools Encourage student self-monitoring through action plans and self-assessments Tap students’ interests in targeted whole-group, small-group, and individual instruction Meet the needs of all students while transforming struggling writers into confident communicators Add to that rich classroom examples, student samples, reproducible charts, and in-depth instructional guidance, making this is your ultimate RTI writing guide. Lisa Morris is an elementary school teacher and teacher trainer for the Okaloosa County School District in Fort Walton Beach, FL. While researching for this book, Lisa kept four goals in mind: 1) focus on research-based differentiated instruction and strategies, 2) look closely at formative and summative assessments as well as curriculum-based measurements, 3) show how student assessment drives instruction, and 4) hold true to the foundations of the writer’s workshop. "RTI Meets Writer′s Workshop is the kind of book every elementary teacher should have. And don′t worry—it will not sit on your shelf. You will use it daily to help guide you through the landmines of RTI and writer’s workshop." —Nancy Foote, Teacher San Tan Elementary School, Gilbert, AZ "Amongst all the theory-driven texts on RTI, this book provides a practical, hands-on approach to improving student′s writing skills through RTI tier intervention. The author′s approach is tried and true in the classroom and is easily adapted to other classrooms using the writer′s workshop." —Gary L. Willhite, Professor of Teacher Education University of Wisconsin, La Crosse




Writer's Workshop for the Common Core


Book Description

Writing instruction expert Warren Combs presents a step-by-step plan for teaching writing workshops that are aligned to the Common Core State Standards. The book is filled with practical mini-lessons, strategies, and tools for every stage of the writing process, from prewriting through publication. Scripting is provided, to show teachers how to model each strategy for students. In addition, Dr. Combs shows how teachers can use the following elements: The concepts Voice, Pictures, and Flow, to help students understand the essential elements of writing; The words Invite, Model, Write, Look, and Learn, to model effective writing for students and have them learn from your example; Revision strategies such as Jot and Blend, Combining Sentences, Writing Leads, and Writing Closes; Peer revision using Peer-Assisted Learning Systems (PALS); Student self-assessment rubrics. The book also includes scoring guides and pacing guides, to help teachers implement writing workshops more easily. As Dr. Combs demonstrates, you can give workshops more structure while still making writing come alive for your students.




Teaching Critical Thinking


Book Description

Help students meet today’s literacy demands with this new book from Terry Roberts and Laura Billings. The authors show how a seminar approach can lead students deeper into a text and improve their speaking, listening, and writing skills, as recommended by the Common Core State Standards. Roberts and Billings provide easy-to-follow information on implementing Paideia Seminars, in which students discuss a text and ask open-ended questions about it. When teachers use this lesson format, students are exposed to a wide range of increasingly complex texts. They also learn how to collaborate, talk about, and reflect on what they’re reading, to make meaning independently and together. Seminars can be done in English class and across the curriculum, using social studies documents or math problems as the texts under discussion. Teaching Critical Thinking also offers an array of practical resources: teacher lesson plans student samples a list of possible ideas and values for discussion a guide to asking good questions during a seminar six full seminar plans (including the texts), covering literature, social studies, and science topics




RTI Strategies that Work in the 3-6 Classroom


Book Description

This is a must-have resource for educators committed to meeting the needs of their struggling students in Grades 3-6. Teachers get a whole toolbox filled with research-based, easy to implement RTI interventions that really work! Get strategies in five core areas — plus correlations to the Common Core State Standards and effective scaffolding tips for English language learners! Listening Strategies help students understand academic language. Reading Strategies help students comprehend text structures. Math Strategies help students understand algebra fundamentals. Speaking Strategies help students engage in structured group discussions. Writing Strategies help students compose informational and opinion-based pieces.




21 Days to Awaken the Writer Within


Book Description

Discover insightful guidance, tools and techniques to become a skilled writer and learn how to share your work with the world. How do you sustain your ideas and overcome self-doubt in your talents? How do you transmit your ideas so that the world will take notice? What techniques can you use to create discipline and make your writing sessions a joy? We live in exciting times: anyone with an idea can reach a worldwide audience, but how do you separate yourself from the thousands competing to be heard? This is a warm, comforting guide to stepping into your new life as an empowered author. You'll learn how to generate more ideas, build confidence in your writing and take your manuscript to completion. Studies have shown it takes just 21 days to establish a new habit. If there's a skill you've always wanted to take advantage of, the answer is only a few weeks away with Hay House’s 21 Days series.




Common Core Literacy Lesson Plans


Book Description

Schools nationwide are transitioning to the Common Core--our advice to you: Don't go it alone! Our new book, Common Core Literacy Lesson Plans: Ready-to-Use Resources, K-5, shows you that teaching the Common Core State Standards in the elementary grades doesn't have to be intimidating! This easy-to-use guide provides model lesson plans for teaching the standards in reading, writing, speaking/listening, and language. Get engaging lesson plans that are grade-appropriate, easy to implement and include ready-to-use reproducible handouts, assessments, resources, and ideas to help you modify the lesson for both struggling and advanced learners. Our Common Core Literacy Lesson Plans are designed to fit seamlessly into your K-5 curriculum. You get practical tips for revamping your existing lessons to meet the standards. Students learn how to read informational texts, write opinion-based essays, and improve their speaking and listening skills. Grammar mini-lessons and foundational skills mini-lessons will help you teach language conventions, phonics, fluency, and more! We take the guesswork out of Common Core lesson plans with this practical, easy-to-use guide. All lesson plans are grade-appropriate, and every lesson plan includes... Common Core State Standards covered in the lesson Overview of objectives and focus of the lesson Background knowledge required and time required A detailed, step-by-step agenda for the lesson, plus a materials list Differentiation ideas to adapt the lesson for different kinds of learners Assessment ideas, including rubrics and scoring guides A place for your notes: what worked; what can improve Bonus! We show you how to extend the lessons into longer units to suit your particular grade's curriculum, and even help you create more of your own lessons!




Writer's Workshop in a Book


Book Description

Since 1969, the prestigious Squaw Valley Community of Writers has helped develop the craft of many who are now household names. Such noted authors as Michael Chabon, Anne Lamott, and Amy Tan have distilled their advice and wisdom from seminars and lectures, and the result is a book that captures the workshop experience of complete submersion in the writing process.




Writers' workshop


Book Description