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

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Summary: How to Teach Writing to Elementary Children
Review: As a novice teacher, I have embraced Writing Like Writers: Guiding Elementary Children Through a Writer's Workshop as my primary source for understanding and teaching the writing process. The book has an easy to use format. It provides step by step models for teachers to use to demonstrate the crafts, skills and strategies of writing. I wanted to set up a Writer's Workshop in my classroom that would address the reality that my students are often at different stages of the writing process. This book provided me with the structure and the content to do just that. It's helping me to become a more effective teacher of writing and therefore my students to become better writers.

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Summary: A complete and comprehensive instruction manual
Review: In Writing Like Writers: Guiding Elementary Children Through A Writer's Workshop, Kathryn Johnson (who teaches Language Arts Methods and supervises student teachers at the University of Rhode Island) has teamed up with Pamela Westkott (who has been teaching third grade for most of her career in a suburban Rhode Island seaside town) to provide frontline elementary school classroom teachers with a complete and comprehensive instruction manual on instilling creative writing skills in their students through the forum of a writing workshop. Writing Like Writers takes the instructor step-by-step through the process of creating an engaging and productive young writer's workshop in any ordinary classroom and integrated into any standard curriculum. The instructional text is enhanced with illustrative real-life experience-based anecdotes and stories that will inspire the classroom teacher with respect to suggested changes in their approaches to teaching writing to young students. Fully covered are such basic issues as preparing classroom materials for an effective writing environment; utilizing scaffolding techniques to guide the student through the process of writing; strategies and crafts allowing young writers to clearly and descriptively express their ideas. There are even reproducible workshops and helpful websites. Writing Like Writers is commended to the attention of classroom teachers, school curriculum developers, and would prove immensely useful to dedicated homeschooling parents for their use as well.

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Summary: A terrific resource for every teacher and homeschooler...
Review: Writing Like Writers guides students through the writing process in a step-by-step fashion that's interesting, and full of different ideas for different writers. Students try each step along the way, and can work out the writing process that suits them best.

Writing Like Writers is complete, with samples and reproducible worksheets throughout. Every aspect of writing is covered: characters, plot, setting, point of view, theme, dialogue, and much more. But far more important than the definition of each aspect, are the examples for teachers to share with their writers. Writing styles and details from repeated words, precise language, onomatopoeia, and more are discussed and tried. Techniques are discussed for use in both fiction and nonfiction writing.

By the time they finish this book, your students will be interested and experienced writers, with many great tools at their fingertips. For teachers, Writing Like Writers provides assesment tools for both teacher- and self-assessment of students' writing. Finally, the book includes "Teaching Children to Write" - a conceptual framework for writing instruction, or how to encourage all the kids in your class to be writers.

Writing Like Writers says that it's for elementary children, but many middle school students who would benefit just as much from this great guide.

Rating:
Summary: A terrific resource for every teacher and homeschooler...
Review: Writing Like Writers guides students through the writing process in a step-by-step fashion that's interesting, and full of different ideas for different writers. Students try each step along the way, and can work out the writing process that suits them best.

Writing Like Writers is complete, with samples and reproducible worksheets throughout. Every aspect of writing is covered: characters, plot, setting, point of view, theme, dialogue, and much more. But far more important than the definition of each aspect, are the examples for teachers to share with their writers. Writing styles and details from repeated words, precise language, onomatopoeia, and more are discussed and tried. Techniques are discussed for use in both fiction and nonfiction writing.

By the time they finish this book, your students will be interested and experienced writers, with many great tools at their fingertips. For teachers, Writing Like Writers provides assesment tools for both teacher- and self-assessment of students' writing. Finally, the book includes "Teaching Children to Write" - a conceptual framework for writing instruction, or how to encourage all the kids in your class to be writers.

Writing Like Writers says that it's for elementary children, but many middle school students who would benefit just as much from this great guide.