1st Edition

Writing Like Writers Guiding Elementary Children Through a Writer's Workshop

    302 Pages
    by Prufrock Press

    Build a classroom of excited, talented young writers. This wonderful teaching resource offers a complete approach to creating a classroom of enthusiastic, skillful student writers.

    The authors provide a comprehensive approach to teaching writing in the classroom. This book offers the strategies teachers need to teach writing skills that meet national standards and to produce excellent results from children.

    Topics addressed in this guidebook include:

    • creating the writing classroom,
    • teaching the writing process,
    • teaching effective writing strategies,
    • teaching elements of story structure,
    • teaching the advanced craft of writing, and
    • using a writer's workshop to teach good writing.

    Writing is a great differentiator. During the writer's workshop, each student is engaged in meaningful ways. Pulling together more than three decades of practical experience and research on the best strategies for teaching writing, Writing Like Writers offers a friendly, easy-to-use guide for any teacher seeking to build a classroom of successful writers.

    Grades 2-6

    Acknowledgments Introduction 1: Beginnings Preparing Materials for a Writing Classroom Connecting Writing Instruction to Writing Standards The Home/School Partnership 2: Living the Writer’s Workshop The Structure of Writer’s Workshop Scaffolding Writing Teaching and Learning Strategies Used in Writer’s Workshop Accountability in Writer’s Workshop 3: Exploring The Writing Process Prewriting Drafting Conferring Revising Editing Publishing 4: Teaching Effective Writing Strategies Read Like a Writer Show, Don’t Tell Use the Five Senses Zoom! 5: Teaching the Elements of Story Structure Characters Plot Point of View Setting Theme 6: Teaching the Craft of Writing Dialogue Endings Leads Precise Words Repeated Words Sound Words Titles Transitions Visual Imagery Voice 7: Assessing Writing What Is Assessment? What and How Do We Assess Writing? Product Assessment—The Way Students Write Product Assessment—The Text Students Write Writing Fluency—Ease and Speed in Which Students Write 8: Teaching Children To Write: A Conceptual Framework for Instructional Decision Making by Paul de Mesquita Afterword: Celebrate! Glossary Bibliography Children’s Literature Teacher’s Resources Favorite Web Sites

    Biography

    Pamela V. Westkott has been teaching third grade most of her teaching career. She lives with her husband and teaches in a suburban Rhode Island seaside town. Her three grown sons live and work in the area. Westkott enjoys teaching, reading, gardening, hiking, and traveling.

    Kathryn L. Johnson teaches in the School of Education at the University of Rhode Island. With a lifelong love of literature and language, Kay is a writer, a calligrapher, and a bookbinder of original, one-of-a-kind books. She lives in rural Rhode Island with her husband and two teenage sons. This is her fourth publication with Prufrock Press.