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Writing for kids can be fun and rewarding-- if you can break into the competitive world of children's book publishing. Learn how to write and promote a children's book that will impress any publisher.
This book provides the support that trainee and beginning teachers need to enable them to teach and assess writing. The book covers all the main aspects of writing, both compositional and transcriptional, including those where the National Curriculum has very little detail.
Evaluating Children's Writing: A Handbook of Grading Choices for Classroom Teachers, Second Edition introduces and explains a wide range of specific evaluation strategies used by classroom teachers to arrive at grades and gives explicit instructions for implementing them. Samples of student writing accompany the instructions to illustrate the techniques, and an appendix of additional student writing is provided to allow readers to practice particular evaluation strategies. More than just a catalog of grading options, however, this is a handbook with a point of view. Its purpose is to help teachers become intentional about their grading practices. Along with recipes for grading techniques, it offers a philosophy of evaluating student writing that encourages teachers to put grading into a communication context and to make choices among the many options available by determining the instructional purpose of the assignment and considering the advantages and disadvantages of particular grading strategies. Specific grading techniques are integrated with suggestions about the craft of evaluation--guidelines for instructional objectives, for student audience analysis, and for teacher self-analysis that help define communication contexts. New in the Second Edition: *a new chapter on state standards and assessments; *a reorganization of the chapter on approaches to grading; *additions to the chapter on management systems; *additions to the chapter on teaching yourself to grade; *additions to the annotated bibliography; and *updated references throughout the text.
“Here is a worthy successor to Ted Hughes’ Poetry in the Making, the book that enabled me to gain the confidence to begin to find my own voice as a story teller. Children Writing Stories confirms that we all have a story to tell if we are enabled to develop enough self-belief. So much of our natural creativity is smothered during our school years. Teachers and children feel hemmed in by the strictures of a curriculum which simply does not allow room for creativity to breathe. Unlock the chains, let the light in, and this is the kind of writing that will flow, this is the kind of intellectual and emotional growing that can transform young lives.” Michael Morpurgo, Children’s Laureate 2003-2005 “What a splendid book! Michael Armstrong paysattention - thirty years of it - to the stories thatchildren write. We get two for one: the children’sown delightful and intriguing work - I want torush off and write some Wally (age 5) stories ofmy own - and Michael Armstrong’s intenseinterpretations. ” Allan Ahlberg "This is real learning at its best, teaching byexample, through painstaking scrutiny of the artof young writers. Absorbing, moving,enlightening, inspiring." Morag Styles, University of Cambridge In Children Writing Stories, Michael Armstrong reveals the creative force of children's narrative imagination and shows how this develops through childhood. He provides a new and powerful understanding of the significance of narrative for children’s intellectual growth and for learning and teaching. The book explores a series of real stories written by children between the ages of five and fifteen, and traces the growth of literary consciousness from the dawn of written narrative in the kindergarten, through the early years of schooling and on into adolescence. Each chapter opens with a story or stories, which the author then goes on to examine in detail, so that the book may be seen as both a select anthology of children’s stories and as a critical account of children’s narrative practice. This original and provocative book will appeal to teachers, parents, students of education and readers with an interest in literacy, children's writing or narrative theory.
Children’s everyday drawing and writing are paradoxical: charmingly engaging, yet seemingly unremarkable in their ordinariness. This book takes a very close look at what passes by largely unnoticed at home and in school: copying, texts fleetingly present then gone, a picture drawn after the valued work of writing has been completed. Examining features of children’s text making that are commonly disregarded because of their very ordinariness, or dismissed as mistakes because they are flawed or lacking, the book examines features such as shading, arrangement and forms of shorthand, and uncovers an intensity of effort in the making of meaning. In decisively shifting the focus away from insufficiency to what children can do and to the ‘work’ they invest in the texts they make, the lens taken here reveals resourcefulness and purposiveness. The unremarkable turns out to be remarkable. This has the most profound implications for what takes place at school, and beyond.
Full of both inspirational and practical advice, Writing Children's Fiction: A Writers' and Artists' Companion is an essential guide to writing for some of the most difficult and demanding readers of all: children and young people. Part 1 explores the nature, history and challenges of children's literature, and the amazing variety of genres available for children from those learning to read to young adults. Part 2 includes tips by such bestselling authors as David Almond, Malorie Blackman, Meg Rosoff and Michael Morpurgo. Part 3 contains practical advice - from shaping plots and creating characters to knowing your readers, handling difficult subjects and how to find an agent and publisher when your book or story is complete.
Shakespeare's words belong to all of us. This book offers 87 lessons full of practical advice on how to teach Shakespeare to young children, with the knowledge that the best way to learn about the playwright is to write in the grip of his words. In this exciting and accessible book, Fred Sedgwick, who has been teaching Shakespeare to KS2 children for many years, offers techniques for introducing some of the plays, starting with A Midsummer Night's Dream, to children between the ages of nine and twelve. These ideas will help them to write, act and draw in the grip of the greatest of writers. Above all, they will help children enjoy Shakespeare's words, and extend the power of their own words. Any teacher concerned with literacy, however nervous she or he may be about approaching Shakespeare, will find this book practical and inspiring.
If you want to write a children's book, then get "How to Write a Children's Book" by a person with real life experience and knowledge in this topic. If you have ever wanted to write a true children’s classic, then you must dive into a child’s mind to see what makes them tick. Within the pages of this guide, all your questions will be expertly answered in a way that is simple and easy to read. Follow along and discover how a children’s story is written—from finding out what a child prefers to read to getting the most from your marketing efforts. Every aspect, from beginning to end, is covered within the pages of this guide. Understand why some children’s books, such as a Dr. Seuss classic, succeed while other, seemingly well written children’s books fail. Within this guide, you will understand what components of a story make up a children’s story and how to keep the child interested in reading your book. The guide does not stop there. After you have a quality book written, follow the steps to bring your book to market and have children reading it from every corner of the globe. You can have the best book ever written, but if nobody knows about it, it will go unread. Avoid the pitfalls of many writers and follow these steps. Children’s book author, Rusty W. Baker and his series of children’s books have, successfully done every step that he references in this guide. Take it from someone that has already been there. You need this guide. About the Expert Rusty W. Baker has several short children’s stories to his credit. His most notable of children’s stories is the “Peter Porcupine” series. He wrote his first story when he was just a child in the 2nd grade of elementary school, about an alien encounter and employed his older brother to illustrate the short story for him. He is a father of 7 children, 3 grandchildren and an Uncle to 28 children. His dive into the psychological aspect of any age range of children far surpasses his years. In this guide, you will be able to tap into his experiences with what children like and what they will read. He has successfully written, illustrated, published, marketed, and sold all of his short stories through various online bookstores and is currently working on a contract with a major publisher (name withheld by request). HowExpert publishes quick 'how to' guides on all topics from A to Z by everyday experts.
