In the Middle: New Understandings About Writing, Reading, and Learning [Paperback]

Nancie Atwell (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0867093749 | ISBN-13: 978-0867093742 | Publication Date: February 11, 1998 | Edition: 2nd

When first published in 1987, this seminal work was widely hailed for its honest examination of how teachers teach, how students learn, and the gap that lies in between. In depicting her own classroom struggles, Nancie Atwell shook our orthodox assumptions about skill-and-drill-based curriculums and became a pioneer of responsive teaching. Now, in the long awaited second edition, Atwell reflects on the next ten years of her experience, rethinks and clarifies old methods, and demonstrates new, more effective approaches.

The second edition still urges educators to "come out from behind their own big desks" to turn classrooms into workshops where students and teachers create curriculums together. But it also advocates a more activist role for teachers. Atwell writes, "I'm no longer willing to withhold suggestions and directions from my kids when I can help them solve a problem, do something they've never done before, produce stunning writing, and ultimately become more independent of me."

More than 70 percent of the material is new, with six brand-new chapters on genres, evaluation, and the teacher as writer. There are also lists of several hundred minilessons, and scripts and examples for teaching them; new expectations and rules for writing and reading workshops; ideas for teaching conventions; new systems for record keeping; lists of essential books for students and teachers; and forms for keeping track of individual spelling, skills, proofreading, homework, writing, and reading.

The second edition of In the Middle is written in the same engaging style as its predecessor. It reads like a story - one that readers will be pleased to learn has no end. As Atwell muses, "I know my students and I will continue to learn and be changed. I am resigned - happily - to be always beginning for the rest of my life as a teacher."

Editorial Reviews

Review

“The best way to teach is to learn together with the students. One of the rare breed of teachers who do know this is Nancie Atwell.”–The New York Times

“Reading this book can be revolutionary. . . . Atwell leads us to new understandings of teaching and learning in a workshop classroom.”–Voices from the Middle

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

• Paperback: 546 pages
• Publisher: Boynton/Cook; 2nd edition (February 11, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0867093749
• ISBN-13: 978-0867093742
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,762 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nancie Atwell Introduces the Reading and Writing Workshop, April 3, 2002

By 

Robert W. Dunkin "jordan42300" (South Padre Island, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In the Middle: New Understandings About Writing, Reading, and Learning (Paperback)

Atwell introduces her teaching experiences with chapters about how teach writing and reading to the fragile adolescent age groups. In the following chapters she describes, in detail, her procedure of the "writing and reading workshop" for teaching in her classroom. She goes into great detail about how she prepares herself before the students ever come to class, what she does in the first week of school and how she introduces the workshop technique to her students, her use of minilessons, how she responds to students' writing and how she values and evaluates the students' writing. This book is very thorough in its descriptions of how to teach the workshop style of reading and writing. Atwell walks the reader through every step to make this technique successful. She gives many examples of dialogue she, as a teacher, has had with students showing the reader how she handled particular situations that had come up. It leaves no question unanswered. I believe this book is very helpful to teachers who wish to teach this method. Atwell captures her audience by using real stories and references to experts in this field who have studied this technique for years. Although this is a very involved technique and some beginners may feel overwhelmed by the detail, I highly recommend it.

40 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent for innovative high school English teachers, July 1, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Hawaii) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In the Middle: New Understandings About Writing, Reading, and Learning (Paperback)

Atwell's new IN THE MIDDLE outclasses the old text by a mile. She really has broken through the questions and concerns raised in the old "cookbook" style IN THE MIDDLE of the eighties to an outstandingly researched and written, comprehensive" how to" for teachers of reading and writing. I am applying her ideas to my high school English classes with astonishing results. This is a book for secondary school English teachers who really want to change what they do and how they do it..

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Unselfish Guideline for Reading/Writing Workshops, May 20, 2001

By 

Karen A Glennon (Albuquerque, NM United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In the Middle: New Understandings About Writing, Reading, and Learning (Paperback)

For those entering the teaching field for the first time, changing schools or situations, or returning after a lengthly time off this book is a step-by-step guide for setting up reading/writing workshops in your classroom. It can be adapted for any grade level. It includes conversations, worksheets, tips, assessments and practical suggestions how to handle most situations with writing/reading with children struggling to define themselves. Nancie Atwell is an unselfish educator willing to share herself and what she has learned with her students and fellow teachers. An invaluable guide. I wish I could take a class or workshop with Nancie Atwell. She must be someone special.