From setting the stage to engaging the classroom in understanding the writing process, this book covers what teachers need to know to instruct students in expository writing. The book is ideal for teachers who are looking for an easy and logical way to teach expository writing in the elementary grades especially for at-risk students who have such limited background knowledge. Each lesson is designed to teach writing in executable steps that produce a high student success rate. Through the use of the direct instruction model, each leasson plan follows a five-step process: skill instroduction, modeling, guided practice, structured practice, and independent practice. Most of the lesson plans include examples to make teacher preparation as painless as possible. Following the 50 carefully designed and explicit lesson plans are a wealth of resources including a template for the Writer's Notebook, Night Writes journal entries, word of the day entries and expository writing prompts.

Gretchen Bernabei has taught middle school and high school for 30 years. She is a coauthor of the bestselling Crunchtime: Lessons to Help Students Blow the Roof Off Writing Tests-and Become Better Writers in the Process; Why We Must Run with Scissors: Voice Lessons in Persuasive Writing; and Sparklers: High Scoring Test Essays and What They Teach Us, and author of Reviving the Essay: How to Teach Structure Without Formula; Lightning in a Bottle; and The Good Writer's Guide. Gretchen is also a contributing author of Teaching the Neglected "R."

Contains lessons and teaching strategies that help students bring organization, facts, and flair to their informational writing.

Why you need a writing revolution in your classroom and how to lead it The Writing Revolution (TWR) provides a clear method of instruction that you can use no matter what subject or grade level you teach. The model, also known as The Hochman Method, has demonstrated, over and over, that it can turn weak writers into strong communicators by focusing on specific techniques that match their needs and by providing them with targeted feedback. Insurmountable as the challenges faced by many students may seem, The Writing Revolution can make a dramatic difference. And the method does more than improve writing skills. It also helps: Boost reading comprehension Improve organizational and study skills Enhance speaking abilities Develop analytical capabilities The Writing Revolution is as much a method of teaching content as it is a method of teaching writing. There's no separate writing block and no separate writing curriculum. Instead, teachers of all subjects adapt the TWR strategies and activities to their current curriculum and weave them into their content instruction. But perhaps what's most revolutionary about the TWR method is that it takes the mystery out of learning to write well. It breaks the writing process down into manageable chunks and then has students practice the chunks they need, repeatedly, while also learning content.

Program for instruction in expository writing.

Inventive activities give teachers details they need to present engaging lesson on writing an entertaining beginning, building suspense, adding detail, developing story endings and using dialogue effectively. Wake kids up to good writing skills. Illustrations throughout.