Incorporate writing instruction in your classroom as an essential element of literacy development while implementing best practices. Simplify the planning of writing instruction and become familiar with the Common Core State Standards of Writing.

Inspire students to develop as writers in the first grade classroom with these engaging and creative writing lessons. This classroom-tested resource shows positive results in students' writing and simplifies the planning of writing instruction. It contains detailed information on how to establish and manage daily Writer's Workshop and includes consistent, structured instruction to encourage students to actively participate in the writing process. Specific lessons to help students develop the traits of quality writing are also included. This resource develops college and career readiness skills and is aligned to today's standards.

Incorporate writing instruction in your classroom as an essential element of literacy development while implementing best practices. Simplify the planning of writing instruction and become familiar with the Common Core State Standards of Writing.

Inspire students to develop as writers in the fourth grade classroom with these engaging and creative writing lessons. This classroom-tested resource shows positive results in students' writing and simplifies the planning of writing instruction. It contains detailed information on how to establish and manage daily Writer's Workshop and includes consistent, structured instruction to encourage students to actively participate in the writing process. Specific lessons to help students develop the traits of quality writing are also included. This resource develops college and career readiness skills and is aligned to today's standards.

An award-winning and hard-hitting new voice in contemporary American poetry The first time I ever came the light was weak and carnivorous. I covered my eyes and the night cleared its dumb throat. I heard my mother wringing her hands the next morning. Of course I put my underwear on backwards, of course the elastic didn't work. What I wanted most at that moment was a sandwich. But I just nursed on this leather whip. I just splattered my sheets with my sadness. —from “Poem of My Humiliations” “What is life but a cross / over rotten water?” Poet, novelist, and essayist Erika L. Sánchez’s powerful debut poetry collection explores what it means to live on both sides of the border—the border between countries, languages, despair and possibility, and the living and the dead. Sánchez tells her own story as the daughter of undocumented Mexican immigrants and as part of a family steeped in faith, work, grief, and expectations. The poems confront sex, shame, race, and an America roiling with xenophobia, violence, and laws of suspicion and suppression. With candor and urgency, and with the unblinking eyes of a journalist, Sánchez roves from the individual life into the lives of sex workers, narco-traffickers, factory laborers, artists, and lovers. What emerges is a powerful, multifaceted portrait of survival. Lessons on Expulsion is the first book by a vibrant, essential new writer now breaking into the national literary landscape.

In this book, you’ll find a wealth of mini lessons designed to improve the quality of students’ writing. Each lesson uses a key mentor text and spotlights one of the 6 + 1 Writing Traits to allow students to focus on the essential aspects of good writing – content, organization, word choice, voice, sentence fluency, conventions, and presentation. Inviting and practical, the lessons are concise and follow a consistent model for easy implementation. With seven lessons per chapter, each includes step-by-step guidance, open-ended prompts, and suggestions for additional suitable mentor texts. The chapters are organized by genre – including fiction, informational texts, and poetry – and feature graphic novels and graphic informational mentor texts to inspire and engage students. Aligned with the Common Core State Standards, this resource is essential for any K-8 or pre-service teacher who wants to instill in their students the skills to become independent, confident writers.

This is an utterly original and completely beguiling prose novel about a boy who has to write a poem, and then another, and then even more. Soon the little boy is writing about all sorts of things he has not really come to terms with, and astounding things start to happen.