The Most Wonderful Writing Lessons Ever

Inventive activities give teachers details they need to present engaging lesson on writing an entertaining beginning, building suspense, adding detail, developing story endings and using dialogue effectively. Wake kids up to good writing skills. Illustrations throughout.

Contains lessons and teaching strategies that help students bring organization, facts, and flair to their informational writing.

Teachers can bring out the artist and writer in every student with projects such as Alphabet Alliterations, Textures Tell Tales, and Whirly Kite Legends! In this easy-to-use book a classroom teacher describes 20 of her favourite art projects with prompts that inspire children to write poems, short storie, descriptions, and more. Children will build skills in writting and enjoy the creative process; families will treasure the results.

Contains activities that analyze the characters in favorite children's books to inspire students in the creation of characters in their own writing.

How do we make writing meaningful to students? A leading educator and a popular novelist present a refreshing exploration of how the challenges of professional writers can give students new insights into writing. The Write Genre presents a balanced approach to writing workshops in grades 3–9. It provides hands-on activities that focus on all stages of the writing process, with teacher-directed assignments and self-selected writing lessons that emphasize writing to learn. These unique lessons are designed to help students write with a concrete purpose and audience in mind and complete assignments that are more focused and authentic. Organized around six writing genres, more than fifty mini-lessons deal with specific skills that help students write effective fiction and nonfiction in such genres as: personal memoir— from techniques involving a personal memoir timeline and organizer to great ways to start, create powerful paragraphs, and cut the clutter; fictional narrative— from character, plot, and dialogue to point of view and conflict resolution; informational report— from strategies for reading nonfiction and K-W-L-S organizers to adding voice and style; opinion piece— from loaded words and other persuasive writing techniques to business letters and topical issues; procedural writing —from incorporating visuals and interviewing experts to techniques for writing imperative sentences; poetry – from teaching the "tools" and specific forms of poetry to creating a poetry anthology. For easy classroom implementation, the key elements of many mini-lessons are also presented in reproducible pages, including frameworks, organizers, prompts, checklists, and grids. The book offers chapters devoted to the writing process, writing workshop, and using rubrics for instruction and assessment. The concluding chapter pulls all the threads together with a multi-genre project that involves students in using the skills they have learned throughout the school year.

Replete with strategies, examples, and reproducibles, this guide is invaluable for any teacher who wants to boost student achievement in writing for any subject or grade level!

No More Theories Please!: A Guide for Elementary Teachers is a classroom management guide for current and prospective elementary classroom teachers. In the book Masao discuss the 3 Rs of management—rules, routines, and reinforcement—as well as behavior management plans and organization. Some chapters provide templates of management systems that the author created and implemented successfully in her own classroom. Unlike many other education texts, this book does not speak in theoretical terms. Rather it provides a how-to guide that clearly defines each strategy and procedure. The book is divided into three sections: organization; routines, rules, and reinforcement; and classroom behavior management systems. Each section has three or four chapters and provides tangible and pragmatic steps that can be taken to create the structured environment desired. Masao writes with a conversational tone, guiding the reader through the process.