Projecting Possibilities for Writers


Book Description

Teachers have to plan instruction that helps writers meet curricular objectives. This guide shows teachers how to help students meet key writing standards.




Craft and Process Studies


Book Description

If you believe that all students should have opportunities to write in genres of their choice but aren't sure how, Matt Glover is here to help. In Craft and Process Studies, Matt makes a compelling case for raising student engagement and writing quality by allowing students to choose the genre they want to write in. Then he shows you how with 17 possible units, divided into craft and process studies, that teach important writing skills while also providing opportunities for choice of genre. Matt uses a predictable structure for each unit that includes suggestions for: - applicable grade ranges - time of year to try - key unit goals and questions - mentor texts - minilesson topics - conferring goals. With key teaching points, ideas for how to fit the units into your existing curriculum, and strategies to overcome common roadblocks, Matt gives you all the specific how-to's for implementing the studies even in school settings where writing units are already set. And with 40 classroom videos, you'll see the power of this work in action.




Already Ready


Book Description

From the very first chapter of this informative and inspiring book, a clear picture emerges of how even three- and four-year-olds' capacities for serious authorship can and should be supported. - Lillian G. Katz Coauthor of Young Investigators: The Project Approach in the Early Years By the time they reach preschool or kindergarten, young children are already writers. They don't have much experience, but they're filled with stories to tell and ideas to express - they want to show the world what they know and see. All they need is a nurturing teacher like you to recognize the writer at work within them. All you need to help them is Already Ready. Taking an exciting, new approach to working with our youngest students, Already Ready shows you how, by respecting children as writers, engaged in bookmaking, you can gently nudge them toward a lifetime of joyful writing. Katie Wood Ray and Matt Glover guide you through fundamental concepts of early writing. Providing numerous, helpful examples of early writing - complete with transcriptions - they demonstrate how to: make sense of children's writing and interpret how they represent sounds, ideas, and images see important developmental signs in writers that you can use to help them grow further recognize the thinking young children engage in and discover that it's the same thinking more experienced writers use to craft purposeful, thoughtful pieces. Then Ray and Glover show you how little ones can develop powerful understandings about: texts and their characteristics the writing process what it means to be a writer. You'll learn how to support your writers' quest to make meaning, as they grow their abilities and refine their thinking about writing through teaching strategies such as: reading aloud working side by side with writers sharing children's writing. Writing is just one part of a busy early childhood classroom, but even in little doses, a nurturing approach can work wonders and help children connect the natural writer inside them to a life of expressing themselves on paper. Find that approach, share it with your students, and you'll discover that you don't have to get students ready to write - they're Already Ready.




One Green Apple


Book Description

Farah feels alone, even when surrounded by her classmates. She listens and nods but doesn’t speak. It’s hard being the new kid in school, especially when you’re from another country and don’t know the language. Then, on a field trip to an apple orchard, Farah discovers there are lots of things that sound the same as they did at home, from dogs crunching their food to the ripple of friendly laughter. As she helps the class make apple cider, Farah connects with the other students and begins to feel that she belongs. Ted Lewin’s gorgeous sun-drenched paintings and Eve Bunting’s sensitive text immediately put the reader into another child’s shoes in this timely story of a young Muslim immigrant.




Engaging Young Writers


Book Description

As teachers, we do indeed live narrative lives, and if you read Engaging Young Writers, Preschool to Grade 1, Matt Glover will help you live out new kinds of stories with the children you teach. I know he's helped me do just that. I'm a better teacher because of what I've learned from him. Katie Wood Ray Author of About the Authors We are so fortunate to have this book. Matt shares his deep understanding of young writers, presents a thoughtful and warm approach to teaching writing, and shows us how to nudge children in ways that are considerate of their interests and intentions as well as their intellectual development. -Kathy Collins Author of Growing Readers Many children come to school wanting to write. But some are unsure about getting started or don't realize they have something to say. Motivating students to put markers to paper is the key that unlocks a lifetime of writing. Engaging Young Writers presents a range of entry points that help every student find a way into writing. In Engaging Young Writers, Matt Glover (coauthor of Already Ready) presents ways to encourage students to pick up the pen and share their remarkable thinking. With multiple entry points for writers, he helps you match your teaching to children's individual interests and patterns of learning. Glover shows how you can: nudge writers into action through meaning, choice, and purpose invite preschool children to write through conversation and invite primary students through units of study spark imaginative writing through read-aloud and dramatic play inspire kids to write stories from personal experiences give students the chance to share their passions and interests through nonfiction writing. Engaging Young Writers features teaching tested in real classrooms and the student samples to back it up. Glover takes special care to address how his ideas can be applied to the unique developmental needs of writers in preschool, kindergarten, and grade one. Inside every child is a writer. Inside you is the desire to give children a great start. Inside Engaging Young Writers is the teaching to help you create that wonderful moment when your students decide to become the writer within.




Self-directed Writers


Book Description

"I'm done. What should I do now?" If you hear this question all too often during the independent work portion of writing workshop, Leah Mermelstein has a solution for making this time more productive for both students and teachers. Mermelstein argues that the "third essential element," creating self-directed writers, is key to the success of writing workshops. Using a wealth of classroom anecdotes, student samples, and specific teaching language, Mermelstein illustrates how even the youngest students can become self-directed learners. Her strategies include: creating an appropriate physical environment along with daily rituals and routines, scaffolding instruction with write-alouds and interactive writing; and planning unites, focus lessons, conferences, and shares that are aimed at helping kids become self-directed.




Write Now!


Book Description

Reissue of ILA bestseller. To become truly college and career ready, students need to be able to communicate effectively in writing, and teachers need to be confident and prepared to teach writing in ways that motivate, encourage, and challenge students to higher levels. In this practical volume, a stellar group of researchers and classroom educators come together to provide instructional strategies that can increase student engagement and motivation to write. Write Now! empowers K–6 classroom teachers to make key instructional decisions that benefit all learners. This user-friendly e-book includes practical tips, strategies, techniques, and concrete examples to help expand the writing expertise of both typical and challenged learners. Contributors: Rose Cappelli, Amber B. Chambers, Lynne R. Dorfman, Kathy Ganske, Matt Glover, Steve Graham, Dana L. Grisham, Karen R. Harris, Julia D. Houston, Jon-Philip Imbrenda, Carol Jago, Karen A. Pelekis, Carole C. Phillips, Timothy Shanahan, Linda Smetana, Michael W. Smith, Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Thomas DeVere Wolsey “Writing fluently and with cohesion is essential for all young children to master because it is a gateway skill for higher learning. Ganske’s approach makes the most of current research on writing and makes it instantly applicable to the classroom.” —Nancy Frey, San Diego State University




Reading with Meaning


Book Description

Ten years since her first edition, author Debbie Miller returns with Reading with Meaning, Second Edition: Teaching Comprehension in the Primary Grades to share her new thinking about reading comprehension strategy instruction, the gradual release of responsibility instructional model, and planning for student engagement and independence.Reading with Meaning , Second Edition delves into strategy and how intentional teaching and guided practice can provide each child a full year of growth during their classroom year. New in this edition are lesson planning documents for each chapter that include guiding questions, learning targets, and summative assessments, as well as new book title recommendations and updated FAQ's from the first edition.Also included are strategic lessons for inferring, determining the importance in each text, and synthesizing information. Teachers can help students make their thinking visible through oral, written, artistic, and dramatic responses and provide examples on how to connect what they read to their own lives.In this book, Miller reflects on her professional experiences and judgement along withcurrent research in the field. She provides a guide for any teacher hoping to build student relationships and develop lifelong independent learners.




A Self Made of Words


Book Description

Confident or fretful, solemn or sassy, tough or tender, casual or formal: the self you project in writing—your persona—is the byproduct of numerous decisions you make about what to say and how to say it. Though any single word or phrase or sentence might make little difference within the scope of an entire essay or book, collectively they create an impression of who you are or seem to be—an impression that’s sure to influence how readers respond to your work. Thus it’s essential to take charge of how you come across on the page, to craft an appropriate persona for whatever you’re writing, whether it’s a personal essay, a blog, a technical report, a letter to the editor, or a memoir. In this wise and ingenious little guide, noted essayist Carl Klaus shows you how to adapt your self to the needs of such varied nonfiction, by varying his own persona to illustrate the distinctive effect produced by each aspect and element of writing. Klaus divides his book into two parts: first, an introduction to the nature and function of a persona, then a survey of the most important elements of writing that contribute to the character of a persona, from point of view and organization to diction and sentence structure. Both parts contain exercises that will give you practice in developing a persona of your choice. Challenging and stimulating, each of his exercises focuses on a distinctly different aspect of composition and style, so as to help you develop the skills of a versatile and personable writer. By focusing on the most important ways of projecting your self in nonfiction prose, you can learn to craft a distinctive self in your writing.




Antiracist Writing Assessment Ecologies


Book Description

In Antiracist Writing Assessment Ecologies, Asao B. Inoue theorizes classroom writing assessment as a complex system that is “more than” its interconnected elements. To explain how and why antiracist work in the writing classroom is vital to literacy learning, Inoue incorporates ideas about the white racial habitus that informs dominant discourses in the academy and other contexts.