Bring literature to life in the writing classroom! With six all-new mentor texts and 24 time-saving lessons, Ruth Culham’s Trait Crate Plus expands and enriches the reading-and-writing experience. In addition to the valuable features and components of the original Trait Crate, this powerful enhanced edition offers: * An emphasis on modes--narrative, informational, and opinion--to help you address higher standards * A companion website that provides access to dozens of downloadable pages for students, video interviews with children’s authors, and student-friendly scoring guides * Culham’s bestseller, The Writing Thief, which takes a deep dive into using mentor texts to teach the craft of writing Grade 4 Mentor Texts: Ideas: If Kids Ran the World Organization: Who Would Win? Whale vs. Giant Squid Voice: Bugs in My Hair Word Choice: The Three Little Pigs and the Somewhat Bad Wolf Sentence Fluency: Steve Jobs: A True Book Conventions: Season of the Circle: A Native American Year Using fiction and nonfiction children’s books as models, Trait Crate Plus makes teaching writing engaging and relevant through the lessons and activities that inspire complex literacy thinking and learning for every student.

Bring literature to life in the writing classroom! With six all-new mentor texts per grade and 24 time-saving lessons, Ruth Culham’s Trait Crate Plus expands and enriches the reading-and-writing experience. In addition to the valuable features and components of the original Trait Crate, this enhanced edition offers: * An emphasis on modes--narrative, informational, and opinion--to help you address higher standards * A companion website that provides access to dozens of downloadable pages for students, video interviews with children’s authors, and student-friendly scoring guides * Culham’s bestseller, The Writing Thief, which takes a deep dive into the theory and practice of using mentor texts to teach the craft of writing Grade 1 Mentor Texts: Ideas: The Wonderful Book Organization: The End (Almost) Voice: Dumb Bunnies Go to the Zoo Word Choice: A Tree Can Be Sentence Fluency: Just How Long Can a Long String Be? Conventions: The Gingerbread Bear Using fiction and nonfiction children’s books as models, Trait Crate Plus makes teaching writing engaging and relevant through the lessons and activities that inspire complex literacy thinking and learning for every student.

Everything you need to teach and assess student writing with this powerful model.

Picture books, model lessons, and more to teach writing with the 6 traits.

"Unexpected emotional depth. . . . A thought-provoking read-aloud." — Publishers Weekly (starred review) Nothing makes Sierra happy like soccer. Her shoes have flames as she spins the ball down the spread-out sea of grass. But nothing makes her sad like soccer, too, because the restaurant where her auntie works is busy on game days and she can’t take time off to watch Sierra play. With honesty and subtlety, author Maribeth Boelts and illustrator Lauren Castillo portray an endearing character in a moving, uplifting story that touches on the divides children navigate every day — and remind us that everyone needs someone to cheer them on from the sidelines.

Effective, easy-to-use tools for trait-based assessment and instruction--just for middle school teachers. Includes printable reproducible forms!

From the author of the National Book Award nominee A TANGLE OF KNOTS comes an inspiring novel about figuring out who you are and doing what you love. Albie has never been the smartest kid in his class. He has never been the tallest. Or the best at gym. Or the greatest artist. Or the most musical. In fact, Albie has a long list of the things he's not very good at. But then Albie gets a new babysitter, Calista, who helps him figure out all of the things he is good at and how he can take pride in himself. A perfect companion to Lisa Graff's National Book Award-nominated A Tangle of Knots, this novel explores a similar theme in a realistic contemporary world where kids will easily be able to relate their own struggles to Albie's. Great for fans of Rebecca Stead's Liar and Spy, RJ Palacio's Wonder and Cynthia Lord's Rules. Praise for Lisa Graff's novels Tangle of Knots (nominated for a National Book Award) * "Combining the literary sensibility of E. B. White with the insouciance of Louis Sachar, Graff has written a tangle that should satisfy readers for years to come."--Booklist, starred review Double Dog Dare "Graff's...story is lighthearted and humorous, but honestly addresses the emotions associated with divorce. Her characters' voices, interactions, and hangups are relatable, as they battle each other and adjust to their families' reconfigurations."--Publishers Weekly