Lessons That Change Writers: Lessons with 3-Ring Binder (Firsthand) [Ring-bound]

Nancie Atwell (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0867095067 | ISBN-13: 978-0867095067 | Publication Date: September 26, 2002

In Lessons That Change Writers, Nancie has narrowed and deepened her conversation with teachers, to focus on the minilesson as a vehicle for helping students improve their writing. She shares over a hundred of these writing lessons which are described by her students as "the best of the best." The lessons fall into the following four categories that provide the structure for this book:

• Lessons about Topics: ways to develop ideas for pieces of writing that will matter to writers and to their readers
• Lessons about Principles of Writing: ways to think and write deliberately to create literature
• Lessons about Genre: in which we observe and name the ways that good free verse poems, formatted poetry, essays, short stories, memoirs, thank-you letters, profiles, parodies, and book reviews work and
• Lessons about Conventions: what readers' eyes and minds have been trained to expect, and how marks and forms function to give writing more voice and power and to make reading predictable and easy.

Learn more about Lessons That Change Writers by visiting www.lessonsthatchangewriters.com where you can review the table of contents, download sample lessons, read a passage from the introduction, and watch a lesson walk through!

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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Nancie Atwell is one of the most highly respected educators in the U.S. Her classic In the Middle has inspired generations of teachers, and her new DVDs Writing in the Middle and Reading in the Middle give us a seat in her writing and reading workshops so that we can see firsthand how she helps students become independent, sophisticated readers and writers. She is also the author of classroom materials through Firsthand. Lessons that Change Writers is a year's worth of instruction straight from Nancie's file cabinets, while Naming the World helps teachers jumpstart their literacy teaching each day the way Nancie does - with poetry, the mother genre. Nancie teaches seventh- and eighth-grade writing, reading, and history at the Center for Teaching and Learning, a K - 8 demonstration school she founded in Edgecomb, Maine, in 1990. Nancie was the first classroom teacher to receive the NCTE David H. Russell Award and the MLA Mina P. Shaughnessy Prize for distinguished research in the teaching of English. Nancie was recently named 2010 Teacher of the Year by River of Words; a California-based non-profit educational organization and also received an honorary degree from the University of New Hampshire during its 2011 commencement ceremony. Read Nancie's Education Week article in which she makes the case for literature in the core standards. To see and hear Nancie's response to the NY Times article on the place of student choice in reading, click here. Read the Article » Review Related Titles » Join the Discussion »

Product Details

• Ring-bound: 1102 pages
• Publisher: FirstHand (September 26, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0867095067
• ISBN-13: 978-0867095067
• Product Dimensions: 11.6 x 10.7 x 2.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #892,737 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incrediblly Helpful, January 19, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Lessons That Change Writers: Lessons with 3-Ring Binder (Firsthand) (Ring-bound)

Nanci's book "In the Middle" has been both an inspiration to middle-level educators and a frustratingly out-of-reach goal. How she manages everything still remains a mystery after reading those 500-plus pages. This new book adds dimention to her previous work by showing us her plans for a year and offering scrips of how she introduces her mini-lessons. Because this book is so detailed, it makes those un-attainable practices within reach.

This is not a "scripted curriculum," but a detailed illustration of how she approaches the instruction of writing. You will need to be fairly familiar with "In The Middle" place these lessons in an appropriate context, as Mini-Lessons are only one piece of her practice.

I was able to transfer several of the lessons in this book directly to my Writing Workshop. Most helpful are the reproducible student samples that show 7th and 8th graders what their work might look like.

If you model your class on Atwell, Linda Reif, etc., this resource is well worth the steep price. I am eagerly awaiting a similar product that lays-open her Reading Workshop Mini-Lessons.

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Invaluable, June 10, 2004

By 

Daniel Thrall - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lessons That Change Writers: Lessons with 3-Ring Binder (Firsthand) (Ring-bound)

Staring down my first year of teaching was daunting enough, let along figuring out how to teach my kids to become good writers. Lessons that Change Writers is an invaluable companion to any English teacher who wants to make real writers out of his students. The book is filled with super-practical lessons that cover every aspect of writing I could have hoped for along with wonderful examples written by Nancie's students. The vast majority of my students finished the year feeling confident about their writing skills; the progress they made was astounding. Students realized that writing was a time consuming process, and I learned that teaching writing in a meaningful way is also a TIME CONSUMING process. To teach in the way Nancie does, it requires a goodly amount of class time and an enormous amount of out-of-class time. However, it was worth it, and this book made me feel like an incredibly competent writing teacher. The rest of my English department will be using this next year. Highly recommended.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Here, Here!, March 17, 2003

By 

Sherryl Bailey (Roseburg, OR USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Lessons That Change Writers: Lessons with 3-Ring Binder (Firsthand) (Ring-bound)

This book (along with the revised "In the Middle") really helped me to "see" what I needed to do to enhance my writing workshop. Reading her, "What I was thinking. . ." and then seeing the words that she uses to teach the lessons made it seem like I was sitting right in her classroom. Of course the only thing better would be doing just that! Well worth the $ spent and immediately usable. I too am waiting for a similar volume that will lay open her reading workshop.