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Highly-effective, field-tested lesson plans that will help transform struggling elementary and middle school students into skilled writers
A comprehensive writing text for students in all disciplines. Covers every aspect of the writing process, from coming up with an idea to the final written product, whether it be an essay, exam essay, tutorial paper, or report. Illustrates each stage of the process of writing with examples and models. Offers strategies for the ``prewriting stage'': thinking the question through, defining a purpose, selecting evidence, and choosing a presentation structure; for the writing stage: constructing introductions and conclusions, sustaining a line of argument, and choosing an appropriate level of technicality or generality; and for the editing stage: reworking sentences, ensuring that each paragraph has a focus, and that the argument flows well throughout the paper. Contains notes on referencing systems, bibliographies, and on punctuation and spelling. Includes many examples of good writing drawn from a wide variety of subjects.
Empowering striving writers to thrive as writers! Somehow, in every classroom during every year, there are students who keep us up at night because of the instructional challenges they face as writers. These students—our striving writers—may find success exploring different entry points and pathways than those their classmates travel. Every Child Can Write will help you lead striving writers along their journey toward growth, confidence, and success. Filled with practical strategies, classroom-management ideas,and reproducible tools, this book also offers low- and high-tech solutions for increasing writing volume and boosting self-esteem. Plus, with suggestions for differentiating instruction based on standards and student needs, it will help you: Implement principles of UDL to optimize your classroom environment and student learning; Identify and honor students’ strengths throughout your writing instruction; Maximize the power of formative assessment to set goals with students; and Integrate the most appropriate technology that empowers students and leads them to independence. As essential as writing is in elementary school, it will be even more important when your students reach middle school. Now is the time to give them the skills, practice, and confidence they need to succeed.
Engaging, explicit lessons using mini-excerpts from books and students’ writing show you how to teach grammar strategically. Zero in on the common grammar glitches, and model for students how to use nouns, verbs, and adjectives effectively, catch mismatched pronoun references; make prose lively with clauses and phrases, use the active voice, and more. From learning the parts of speech to the skill of paragraphing, this book covers it, and gives you what you need to teach grammar in the context of reading and writing. For use with Grades 4-8.
The result of an investigation into the grading writing by the National Council of Teachers of English Committee on Alternatives to Grading Student Writing, this collection of essays offers the writing teacher several innovative and interesting options. Following an introduction by the editor (chair of the Committee), in which he delineates the field of possibilities, the essays and their authors are, as follows: (1) "It's Broken--Fix It!" (Liesel K. O'Hagan); (2) "Growth-Biased Assessing of Writers--A More Democratic Choice" (Marie Wilson Nelson); (3) "Writing Students Need Coaches, Not Judges" (Lynn Holaday); (4) "Response: A Promising Beginning for Learning to Grade Student Writing" (Carol Beeghly Bencich); (5) "Can You Be Black and Write and Right?" (Elaine B. Richardson); (6) "Alternative Assessment of Second-Language Writing: A Developmental Model" (Janis Massa); (7) "Scribliolink: Inviting Parents To Respond to Their Children's Writing" (Joyce C. Fine); (8) "Student Attitudes toward Grades and Evaluation on Writing" (Jean S. Ketter and Judith W. Hunter); (9) "Writing at Reading: How a Junior Year in England Changes Student Writers" (Mary B. Guthrow); (10) "Assessment through Collaborative Critique" (Sarah Robbins and others); (11) "What Grades Do for Us, and How To Do without Them" (Marcy Bauman); (12) "Seeing How Good We Can Get It" (Kelly Chandler and Amy Muentener); (13) "Grading on Merit and Achievement: Where Quality Meets Quantity" (Stephen Adkison and Stephen Tchudi); (14) "Total Quality: A Farewell to Grades" (Charles McDonnell); (15) "Using a Multidimensional Scoring Guide: A Win-Win Situation" (Gail M. Young); (16) "Students Using Evaluation in Their Writing Process" (Jacob S. Blumner and Francis Fritz); (17) "Unlocking Outcome-Based Education through the Writing Process" (Rick Pribyl); (18) "Portfolio Assessment as an Alternative to Grading Student Writing" (Kathleen Jones); and (19) "Issues To Consider When Scoring Student Portfolios" (Anne Wescott Dodd). Faculty workshops in alternatives to grading student writing were: "Developing Intrinsic Motivation for Students' Writing" (Immaculate Kizza); "Weighing and Choosing Alternatives" (Stephen Tchudi); "Contract Grades: An Agreement between Students and Their Teachers" (Lynda S. Radican); and "Using Rubrics and Holistic Scoring of Writing" (Jean S. Ketter); "Alternative Assessment Methods across the Disciplines" (Pamela B. Childers); and "Communicating with Parents and the Public" (Marilyn M. Cooper). Individual chapters contain references. (NKA)
Why you need a writing revolution in your classroom and how to lead it The Writing Revolution (TWR) provides a clear method of instruction that you can use no matter what subject or grade level you teach. The model, also known as The Hochman Method, has demonstrated, over and over, that it can turn weak writers into strong communicators by focusing on specific techniques that match their needs and by providing them with targeted feedback. Insurmountable as the challenges faced by many students may seem, The Writing Revolution can make a dramatic difference. And the method does more than improve writing skills. It also helps: Boost reading comprehension Improve organizational and study skills Enhance speaking abilities Develop analytical capabilities The Writing Revolution is as much a method of teaching content as it is a method of teaching writing. There's no separate writing block and no separate writing curriculum. Instead, teachers of all subjects adapt the TWR strategies and activities to their current curriculum and weave them into their content instruction. But perhaps what's most revolutionary about the TWR method is that it takes the mystery out of learning to write well. It breaks the writing process down into manageable chunks and then has students practice the chunks they need, repeatedly, while also learning content.
Supported by the Common Core State Standards, the 30] strategies in this book include pre-writing planning, peer conferencing, modeling effective revision, and using technology.
