Customer Reviews

Growing Up Writing: Mini-Lessons for Emergent and Beginning Writers

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The research is clear concerning writing workshops: They are the most effective way to teach the craft and process of writing. This being the case, they should not, contend the authors, be reserved for the upper grades. Rather, all writers-including kindergartners and older emergent writers-should have the opportunity to experience the writer's workshop.

If you are interested in incorporating a writing workshop into your kindergarten or first grade curriculum, this book will serve as an excellent starting point and guide. In addition to answering your questions, it provides nearly sixty mini-lessons as well as a year-long calendar which can serve as your framework.

In their introduction, Dierking and Jones write that "kindergartners-and emergent writers of any age-should be treated like genuine authors and taught in a manner that respects their abilities while empowering their advancements." This is not merely a flowery sentiment. The entire book flows from this belief.

In Section 1, the authors discuss in detail their framework for teaching a workshop. The three parts are: the mini-lesson (5-10 minutes), independent practice with conferencing (20-30 minutes), and sharing (5-10 minutes). Also included is a chapter on "Connecting to Parents." Here the reader will find sample parent letters, information about homework, and a discussion of student journals.

The "meat" of the book is found in Sections 2-5. Section 2 comprises operational mini-lessons. That is, direct instruction of skills related to the "management of classroom process, materials, and spaces." Section 3 concerns print awareness mini-lessons. Here readers are provided with lessons that address the mechanics of writing: punctuation, capital letters, temporary spelling, and such. In Section 4 the authors include twelve foundational mini-lessons: setting, character development, choosing a topic, etc. Section 5 is devoted to craft mini-lessons. Here the lessons focus on using transition words, active verbs, color words, compare and contrast, word choice, elaboration and so forth.

Appended are a literature list and a bibliography. The literature list contains the titles of children's books and suggestions as to which mini-lesson the book is good for modeling. would be good for modeling. The bibliography is a list of recommended professional literature. The choices are excellent and will provide the reader with a firm foundation concerning the workshop process.

Highly Recommended.

Reviewed by the Education Oasis Staff

Collaboratively developed and compiled by Connie Campbell Dierking and Sherra Ann Jones, Growing Up Writing: Mini-lessons For Emergent And Beginning Writers presents fifty-nine abbreviated lessons especially designed and intended for the kindergarten classroom. From teaching young folks to write their first journal, to audience and conference etiquette, to print awareness, learning how to make a brainstorm list, using transition words, describing feelings with all five senses, and more, Growing Up Writing is a superbly organized and idea-packed resource which is very highly recommended for classroom teachers, and ideal for use by home schoolers in developing writing skills with young children.

This book is jam-packed with strategic mini-lessons that teachers have been desperately searching for!. Connie and Sherra have done an outstanding job of bringing simplicity to focused instruction.

Excellent, excellent book for your reading and writing program. DO NOT teach without it!!!

i work with my children at home and thought this book might be useful to improve their writing. however, many of the lessons involved discussions (assuming that there was a class) and describing how to direct the conversation. this seems to be a good book, but is one that can really only be applied to classes.

This book really changed my classroom as far as writing goes. My students' writing skills have increased substantially over what they were when I relied on my district's adopted curriculum only. I still do that, but with this separate writing workshop, their writing has just taken off.

I loved the philosophy and the many, many detailed examples of lessons. I especially appreciated the approach to assessment - where the students are involved in monitoring where they're at and making goals for improvement.

The fact that this book explicitly details the components of a mini lesson is wonderful. Too many emergent reader books contain lesson plans but the reader is not able to glean just how one is composed. The authors of this book do a great job in detailing the lesson plan by explaining the parts of a mini lesson and how to implement it. As an adjunct, I recommend this book for graduate level emergent literacy coursework.