15 minute read
Writing
What Works in Writing Instruction
Research and Practice, Second Edition
Deborah Dean
“What works?”
As teachers, it’s a question we often ask ourselves about teaching writing, and it often summarizes other, more specific questions we have: ● What contributes to an effective climate for writing? ● What practices and structures best support effective writing instruction? ● What classroom content helps writers develop? ● What tasks are most beneficial for writers learning to write? ● What choices should I make as a teacher to best help my students? Using teacher-friendly language and classroom examples, Deborah Dean helps answer these questions; she looks closely at instructional practices supported by a broad range of research and weaves them together into accessible recommendations that can inspire teachers to find what works for their own classrooms and students. Initially based on the Carnegie Institute’s influential Writing Next report, this second edition of What Works in Writing Instruction looks at more types of research that have been conducted in the decade since the publication of that first research report. The new research rounds out its list of recommended practices and is designed to help teachers apply the findings to their unique classroom environments. We all must find the right mix of practices and tasks for our own students, and this book offers the best of what is currently known about effective writing instruction to help teachers help students develop as writers.
170 pp. | 2021 | Grades 7–12 | ISBN 9780814156810 $23.96 member/$29.99 nonmember ebook: ISBN 9780814156827
Genre Theory
Teaching, Writing, and Being
Deborah Dean
Contemporary genre theory is probably not what you learned in college. Its dynamic focus on writing as a social activity in response to a particular situation makes it a powerful tool for teaching practical skills and preparing students to write beyond the classroom. Although genre is often viewed as simply a method for labeling different types of writing, Deborah Dean argues that exploring genre theory can help teachers energize their classroom practices. Genre Theory synthesizes theory and research about genres and provides applications that help teachers artfully address the challenges of teaching high school writing. Theory and Research Into Practice (TRIP) series
119 pp. | 2008 | Grades 9–12 | ISBN 9780814118412 $22.36 member/$27.99 nonmember
Strategic Writing
The Writing Process and Beyond in the Secondary English Classroom, Second Edition
Deborah Dean
Dean worked with high school teachers to refine, reorganize, and update the material in this book to better support classroom teachers dedicated to teaching not just the process of writing but also the strategies that help students learn to write effectively throughout their lives. Along with engaging and practical mini-lesson classroom activities, this new edition offers (1) lesson plans that differentiate between strategy, activity, and mini-lesson to show how all three function in a strategic approach; (2) a focus on digital tools and genres; (3) conceptual material in early, short chapters and the teaching ideas, examples of student work, and lesson plans in appendixes; and (4) grouping by types of strategies. Dean also considers students’ out-of-school as well as inschool writing tasks.
208 pp. | 2017 | Grades 9–12 | ISBN 9780814147559 $27.96 member/$34.99 nonmember ebook: ISBN 9780814147573
The Reader Response Notebook
Ted Kesler
The reader response notebook (RRN) is a tried-and-true tool in elementary and middle school classrooms. However, teachers and students often express frustration about this tool. Students’ responses sometimes feel like they’re just going through the motions, with little evidence of deep comprehension. This book breathes new life into RRNs by infusing this work with three key practices: (1) enabling responses to be design work, using a variety of writing tools; (2) expanding what counts as texts, including popular culture texts that are important in students’ lives outside of school; and (3) making the RRN an integral part of a community of practice. Kesler shows how we can teach students toward agency, autonomy, and accountability in their RRN work. Filled with examples of student work and explicit teaching in classrooms, the book shows how students’ creative responses lead to deep comprehension of diverse texts and ultimately develop their literate identities.
155 pp. | 2018 | Grades K–8 | ISBN 9780814138403 $23.96 member/$29.99 nonmember ebook: ISBN 9780814138410
The Writing Workshop
Working through the Hard Parts (And They’re All Hard Parts)
Katie Wood Ray, with Lester L. Laminack
Katie Wood Ray offers a practical, comprehensive, and illuminating guide to support both new and experienced teachers. While every aspect of writing workshop is geared to support children learning to write, this kind of teaching is often challenging because what writers really do is engage in a complex, multilayered, slippery process to produce texts. The book confronts the challenge of this teaching head-on. Woven between the chapters on teaching are the voices of published writers, followed by short commentaries from Lester L. Laminack. These voices remind us how writers do what they do, thus lending authenticity to what Katie Wood Ray shows us in the classroom and thoughtfully helping us frame our instruction to match the complex process of writing.
278 pp. | 2001 | Grades 3–8 | ISBN 9780814113172 $30.36 member/$37.99 nonmember
Wondrous Words
Writers and Writing in the Elementary Classroom
Katie Wood Ray Wondrous Words is a “loud” book, filled with the voices of writers, young and old. Drawing on stories from classrooms, examples of student writing, and illustrations, Katie Wood Ray explains in practical terms the theoretical underpinnings of how elementary and middle school students learn to write from their reading. The author invites readers into her library and offers suggestions on using books by authors including Cynthia Rylant, Debra Frasier, Eve Bunting, and Gary Paulsen to help teach writing. Wondrous Words weaves practice and theory together to provide an important knowledge base for teachers.
317 pp. | 1999 | Grades K–6 | ISBN 9780814158166 $30.36 member/$37.99 nonmember
A Place to Write
Getting Your Students out of the Classroom and into the World
Rob Montgomery and Amanda Montgomery A Place to Write is both a rationale for moving students out of the classroom to write in realworld spaces and a howto guide to help teachers develop their own placebased writing activities. Each chapter explores opportunities for writing in a different real-world setting such as museums, public places, and natural places by providing a range of practical classroom activities in a variety of commonly taught genres. Each activity is accompanied by considerations for teachers who may want to forge interdisciplinary connections and/or add authentic audiences to their students’ work. Rob and Amanda Montgomery also suggest adaptations and scaffolding for students with special needs and English language learners. A Place to Write provides a comprehensive view of how placebased writing can be incorporated for a range of classroom purposes. While this includes environmental advocacy, the book also encompasses issues of equity and social justice, school safety, and culture and identity, as well as including accessible ideas for teaching common genres such as personal narrative, argumentation, and authentic forms of inquiry.
240 pp. | 2021 | Grades K–12 | ISBN 9780814135457 $30.36 member/$37.99 nonmember ebook: ISBN 9780814135464
Learning to Write for Readers
Using Brain-Based Strategies
John T. Crow
Crow first uses nontechnical language and fun classroom demonstrations to explore how proficient readers process written material. He then applies this perspective to specific areas of writing instruction, including analyzing texts and audiences; experimenting with sentences, paragraphs, and essay writing; and helping Standardized English learners acquire academic English. This brain-based approach to writing instruction will help you build from the tremendous storehouse of knowledge students already possess about language to help them learn what they need to know about writing.
157 pp. | 2011 | Grades 7–12 | ISBN 9780814127827 $23.96 member/$29.99 nonmember
Speak for Yourself
Writing with Voice
Susanne Rubenstein
—Elizabeth Rich Woo
As writing instruction becomes more standardized and structured, student voices grow silent. Speak for Yourself: Writing with Voice places a new emphasis on voice in the teaching of writing. Armed with the philosophy and concrete teaching ideas offered in this book, teachers can find the courage to speak up in order to create writing classrooms where students take ownership of their work, enjoy what they’re writing, and produce writing that shows depth of thought and originality of expression. This book acknowledges the pressures English teachers face in today’s educational climate, but challenges teachers to rally their expertise and enthusiasm so that student writers develop voice and speak for themselves.
143 pp. | 2018 | Grades 9–12 | ISBN 9780814146149 $23.96 member/$29.99 nonmember ebook: ISBN 9780814146156
Writing about Literature, 2nd ed.
Revised and Updated
Larry R. Johannessen, Elizabeth A. Kahn, and Carolyn Calhoun Walter Drawing on years of real classroom experience, the authors address the challenge many teachers face: how can we use writing assignments to deepen students’ understanding of literature, while at the same time improve their writing, critical thinking, and analytical skills? This book provides an overview of the key components of theory and research—including assessment, literary interpretation, composition, sequencing, and activity design—and then offers practical activities to help students learn how to interpret literature, write compelling arguments, and support those arguments using evidence from the text. Theory and Research Into Practice (TRIP) series
104 pp. | 2009 | Grades 9–12 | ISBN 9780814132111 $19.96 member/$24.99 nonmember
Designing Writing Assignments
Traci Gardner
Effective student writing begins with well-designed classroom assignments. In this book, veteran educator Traci Gardner offers practical ways to develop assignments that will allow students to express their creativity and grow as writers and thinkers while still addressing the many demands of resourcestretched classrooms. Gardner uses her classroom experience to provide ideas on how to effectively define a writing task, explore the expectations for a composition activity, and assemble the supporting materials that students need to do their best work. She includes dozens of starting points that you can customize and further develop for your own students.
109 pp. | 2008 | Grades 9–College | ISBN 9780814110850 $19.96 member/$24.99 nonmember
Lesson Plans for Teaching Writing
Chris Jennings Dixon, editor
This collection of lesson plans, grouped around popular categories such as writing process, portfolios, and writing on demand, will help prepare high school and college students for college-level writing. Each lesson follows a standard format that includes purpose of the activity; necessary preparation; required props and materials; process and procedure for implementation; instructional pointers and/or possible pitfalls; and reflections from the teacher that provide “behind the scenes” insights.
249 pp. | 2007 | Grades 8–College | ISBN 9780814108857 $30.36 member/$37.99 nonmember
Teaching Writing Online
How and Why
Scott Warnock
—Lisa Dush, associate professor of writing, rhetoric, and discourse, DePaul University, Chicago, IL
How can you migrate your tried and true face-to-face teaching practices into an online environment?
Warnock explores how to teach an online (or hybrid) writing course by emphasizing the importance of using and managing students’ written communications.
Grounded in Warnock’s years of experience in teaching, teacher preparation, online learning, and composition scholarship, this book is designed with usability in mind. Features include: ● How to manage online conversations ● Responding to students ● Organizing course material ● Core guidelines for teaching online ● Resource chapter and appendix with sample teaching materials
235 pp. | 2009 | College | ISBN 9780814152539 $30.36 member/$37.99 nonmember
Mobile Technologies and the Writing Classroom
Resources for Teachers
Claire Lutkewitte, editor If compositionists wish to be pedagogically relevant, they need to think carefully about how their students read and compose texts and where they do so. More and more young people are choosing to write a variety of texts in a variety of locations because technologies make it possible. This book provides practical resources and assignments for writing instructors who are interested in a pedagogy that makes use of mobile technologies. The contributors explore both writing for and about mobile technologies and writing with mobile technologies. The book offers (1) a starting point for instructors who haven’t yet used mobile technologies in the classroom, (2) fresh ideas to those who have and proof that they are not alone, and (3) a call of reassurance that we can do more with less.
234 pp. | 2016 | College | ISBN 9780814131961 $30.36 member/$37.99 nonmember ebook: ISBN 9780814131978
Writing Together
Ten Weeks Teaching and Studenting in an Online Writing Course
Scott Warnock and Diana Gasiewski
As more and more college writing instructors are asked to teach online courses, the need for practical, day-to-day advice about what to expect in these courses and how to conduct them has grown. This book narrates the experience of an asynchronous online writing course (OWC) through the dual perspective of the teacher, Scott, and a student, Diana Gasiewski. They each describe their strategies, activities, approaches, thoughts, and responses as they move week by week through the experience of teaching and taking an OWC. This narrative approach includes details about specific assignments and teaching strategies, and through the experience of the student author, OWC instructors will better understand how students perceive OWCs and navigate through them—and how students manage their lives in the context of distance education.
267 pp. | 2018 | College | ISBN 9780814159231 $30.36 member/$37.99 nonmember ebook: ISBN 9780814159248
Making Hybrids Work
An Institutional Framework for Blending Online and Face-to-Face Instruction in Higher Education
Joanna N. Paull and Jason Allen Snart
Making Hybrids Work provides a resource for institutions of higher education to grow and sustain quality hybrid courses—those combining online and face-to-face learning— by outlining an institutional framework that focuses on defining and advertising hybrids; developing, supporting, and assessing hybrid programs; and training faculty. To examine the reality rather than the hype of a hybrid curriculum, the authors consider several existing hybrid courses in a variety of disciplines, as well as explore the possibilities and limitations of teaching with technology. Although there is no one easy path to instituting a hybrid curriculum, the authors argue that the hybrid model might well offer a potential “best of both worlds” in its blending of online and face-to-face instruction, but only with a strong foundation of institutional planning and professional support in place.
227 pp. | 2016 | College | ISBN 9780814130537 $27.96 member/$34.99 nonmember ebook: ISBN 9780814130544
The Lifespan Development of Writing
Charles Bazerman, Arthur N. Applebee, Virginia W. Berninger, Deborah Brandt, Steve Graham, Jill V. Jeffery, Paul Kei Matsuda, Sandra Murphy, Deborah Wells Rowe, Mary Schleppegrell, and Kristen Campbell Wilcox How does writing develop before, during, and after schooling, and how do an individual’s writing experiences relate to one another developmentally across the lifespan? This book is a first step toward understanding how people develop as writers over their lifetimes. The authors present the results of a four-year project to synthesize the research on writing development at different ages from multiple, cross-disciplinary perspectives, including psychological, linguistic, sociocultural, and curricular. First collectively offering the joint statement “Toward an Understanding of Writing Development across the Lifespan,” the authors then focus individually on specific periods of writing development, including early childhood, adolescence, and working adulthood. They conclude with a summative understanding of trajectories of writing development and implications for further research, teaching, and policy.
398 pp. | 2018 | preK–College | ISBN 9780814128169 $31.96 member/$39.99 nonmember ebook: ISBN 9780814128176
Sustainable WAC
A Whole Systems Approach to Launching and Developing Writing Across the Curriculum Programs
Michelle Cox, Jeffrey R. Galin, and Dan Melzer A 2008 survey of Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) programs found that nearly half of those identified in a 1987 survey no longer existed twenty years later, pointing to a need for an approach to WAC administration that leads to programs that persist over time. In Sustainable WAC, three current or former WAC program directors introduce a theoretical framework for WAC program development that takes into account the diverse contexts of today’s institutions of higher education, aids WAC program directors in thinking strategically as they develop programs, and integrates a focus on program sustainability. Informed by theories that illuminate transformative change within systems and illustrated with vignettes by WAC directors across the country, this book lays out principles, strategies, and tactics to help WAC program directors launch, relaunch, or reinvigorate programs within the complicated systems of today’s colleges and universities.
272 pp. | 2018 | College | ISBN 9780814149522 $30.36 member/$37.99 nonmember ebook: ISBN 9780814149546
What Is “College-Level” Writing? Volume 2
Patrick Sullivan, Howard Tinberg, and Sheridan Blau, editors This sequel to What Is “College-Level” Writing? (2006) highlights the practical and the pragmatic aspects of teaching writing. The essays in this collection focus on things all English and writing teachers concern themselves with on a daily basis—assignments, readings, and real student writing. Contributors include students, high school teachers, and college instructors in conversation with one another. Through a pragmatic lens, the volume addresses other important issues related to college-level writing, including assignment design, the use of the five-paragraph essay, and the AP test, as well as issues related to L2/ELL and Generation 1.5 students.
329 pp. | 2010 | Grades 9–College | ISBN 9780814156766 $30.36 member/$37.99 nonmember
What Is “College-Level” Writing?
Patrick Sullivan and Howard Tinberg, editors
