An essential "how-to" primer, this book examines the process of learning to write and shares evidence-based instructional strategies for the primary grades. With an emphasis on explicit instruction and scaffolding students' learning, the authors explain when and how to teach handwriting, spelling, foundational skills such as sentence formation and editing, and composition in specific genres. They present clear-cut techniques for assessment, differentiation, and supporting struggling writers. The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for Writing are used as a framework for setting instructional goals. Reproducible assessment forms, checklists, and rubrics are provided; purchasers get access to a Web page where they can download and print the reproducible materials in a convenient 8 1/2" x 11" size.

This longitudinal, comparative case study of two large teacher preparation programs investigates how elementary teachers learn to teach writing. I follow nine teachers through their preservice preparation and first year of teaching. Using a cultural-historical activity theory framework (Engeström, 2001), I analyze settings for learning to teach writing in order to illuminate the features within and across settings that support or constrain learning. At the end of the preservice year, differences in teacher learning between cohorts were due to the degree of alignment between the methods course and the field placement and to the quality of instruction in the methods course. Importantly, I found that teachers in the stronger preparation program developed a cohesive set of tools, or conceptual framework for writing instruction, while graduates of the weaker program had a very limited repertoire of tools for teaching writing. This framework remained stable through the first year and guided teachers' decision-making. However, graduates from both programs needed more support in learning to teach writing across the grades and in acquiring the subject-matter knowledge needed to teach writing. Teachers entered the field with a tenuous grasp on how to teach writing, and their teaching quality in the first year depended largely on school and district support. Teachers who had focused grade-level and school/district support fared better than teachers who worked in settings that were unsupportive or settings that were supportive but unfocused. Writing curriculum played a significant role in many teachers' practices, regardless of other supports. Curricular materials varied in terms of the features of practice that were highlighted and the degree to which these features were explained. These differences afforded different opportunities for learning. Directions for future research and implications and for teacher education, administration, policy, and curriculum are discussed.

"Writing allows each of us to live with that special wide-awakeness that comes from knowing that our lives and our ideas are worth writing about." -Lucy Calkins Teaching Writing is Lucy Calkins at her best-a distillation of the work that's placed Lucy and her colleagues at the forefront of the teaching of writing for over thirty years. This book promises to inspire teachers to teach with renewed passion and power and to invigorate the entire school day. This is a book for readers who want an introduction to the writing workshop, and for those who've lived and breathed this work for decades. Although Lucy addresses the familiar topics-the writing process, conferring, kinds of writing, and writing assessment- she helps us see those topics with new eyes. She clears away the debris to show us the teeny details, and she shows us the majesty and meaning, too, in these simple yet powerful teaching acts. Download a sample chapter for more information.

Preparing to Teach Writing: Research, Theory, and Practice, Third Edition is a comprehensive survey of theories, research, and methods associated with teaching composition successfully. The primary goal is to provide practicing and prospective teachers with the knowledge they need to be effective teachers of writing and to prepare them for the many challenges they will face in the classroom. Overall, the third edition of Preparing to Teach Writing is clearer and more comprehensive than the previous editions. It combines the best of the old with new information and features. The discussions and references to foundational studies that helped define the field of rhetoric and composition are preserved in this edition. Also preserved is most of the pedagogical apparatus that characterized the first two editions; research and theory are examined with the aim of informing teaching. New in the Third Edition: *a more thorough discussion of the history of rhetoric, from its earliest days in ancient Greece to the first American composition courses offered at Harvard University in 1874; *a major revision of the examination of major approaches to teaching writing--current-traditional rhetoric, new rhetoric, romantic rhetoric, writing across the curriculum, social-theoretic rhetoric, postmodern rhetoric, and post-postmodern rhetoric--considering their strengths and weaknesses; *an extension of the discussion of strengths and weaknesses of major approaches to its logical conclusion--Williams advocates an epistemic approach to writing instruction that demonstrably leads to improved writing instruction when implemented effectively; *a more detailed account of the phonics--whole language debate that continues to puzzle many teachers and parents; *a new focus on why grammar instruction alone does not lead to better writing, the difference between grammar and usage, and how to teach grammar and usage effectively; *an expanded section on Chicano English that now includes a discussion of Spanglish; *more information on outcome objectives; the Council of Writing Program Administrators' statement of learning outcomes for first-year composition courses has been included to help high school teachers better understand how to prepare high school students for college writing, and to help those in graduate programs prepare for teaching assistantships in first-year composition courses; and *a more comprehensive analysis of assessment that considers such important factors as the validity, reliability, predictability, cost, fairness, and politics of assessment and the effects on teaching of state-mandated testing, and also provides an expanded section on portfolios.

What do writing teachers need to know? And what do they need to know how to do?

Intro -- Acknowledgments -- Table of Contents -- About the Author -- Introduction -- Chapter 1 -- Chapter 2 -- Chapter 3 -- Chapter 4 -- Chapter 5 -- Chapter 6 -- Epilogue -- Appendix A -- Appendix B -- References and Resources -- Index