Ready-to-Use Writing Proficiency Lessons and Activities: 8th Grade Level [Paperback]

Carol H. Behrman (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0787965863 | ISBN-13: 978-0787965860 | Publication Date: March 27, 2003 | Edition: 1

This volume of Ready-to-Use Writing Proficiency Lessons & Activities gives classroom teachers and language arts specialists a powerful and effective tool for addressing curriculum standards and competencies at the eighth-grade level and preparing their students for comprehensive assessment testing.

Writing Proficiency Lessons & Activities books are also available from Jossey-Bass at the fourth-grade level and the tenth-grade level.

Included are a variety of easy-to-use, reproducible activity sheets that provide application and review the basic language skills as well as extensive practice in producing the types of writing called for in standardized tests.

For easy use, the 240-plus student activity sheets are printed in a big 8-1/2" x 11" format that lays flat for photocopying. The activities are organized into nine sections. Here is just a sample of the topics covered in Sections 1-5:

• CHOOSING THE RIGHT WORD: words often confused, prefixes, suffixes, synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, adverbs vs. adjectives, sensory words, similes, metaphors, and double negatives
• MAKING MECHANICS AND USAGE WORK FOR YOU: apostrophes, hyphens, end marks, commas, semicolons, colons, quotation marks, titles, and misplaced modifiers.
• WRITING SENTENCES: subjects and predicates, subject-verb agreement, simple and compound sentences, complex sentences, sentence fragments, run-on sentences, and sentence types
• WRITING PARAGRAPHS: writing a topic sentence, writing a concluding sentence, developing the topic, using tense consistently, using transitional words, and staying on the topic
  
• ESSAY-WRITING TECHNIQUES: brainstorming, clustering, outlining, writing an introductory paragraph with a question or a surprising statement, developing the topic using examples, avoiding irrelevant details, writing a concluding paragraph, proofreading, and writing a five-paragraph essay.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

This volume of Ready-to-Use Writing Proficiency Lessons & Activities gives classroom teachers and language arts specialists a powerful and effective tool for addressing curriculum standards and competencies at the eighth-grade level and preparing their students for comprehensive assessment testing.

Writing Proficiency Lessons & Activities books are also available from Jossey-Bass at the fourth-grade level and the tenth-grade level.

Included are a variety of easy-to-use, reproducible activity sheets that provide application and review the basic language skills as well as extensive practice in producing the types of writing called for in standardized tests.

For easy use, the 240-plus student activity sheets are printed in a big 8-1/2" x 11" format that lays flat for photocopying. The activities are organized into nine sections. Here is just a sample of the topics covered in Sections 1-5:

• CHOOSING THE RIGHT WORD: words often confused, prefixes, suffixes, synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, adverbs vs. adjectives, sensory words, similes, metaphors, and double negatives
• MAKING MECHANICS AND USAGE WORK FOR YOU: apostrophes, hyphens, end marks, commas, semicolons, colons, quotation marks, titles, and misplaced modifiers.
• WRITING SENTENCES: subjects and predicates, subject-verb agreement, simple and compound sentences, complex sentences, sentence fragments, run-on sentences, and sentence types.
• WRITING PARAGRAPHS: writing a topic sentence, writing a concluding sentence, developing the topic, using tense consistently, using transitional words, and staying on the topic.
• ESSAY-WRITING TECHNIQUES: brainstorming, clustering, outlining, writing an introductory paragraph with a question or a surprising statement, developing the topic using examples, avoiding irrelevant details, writing a concluding paragraph, proofreading, and writing a five-paragraph essay.

The activities in Sections 6-9 take students through the steps in the writing process to develop from six to eight writing samples on various age-appropriate topics in each of the following genres required on state tests:
WRITING INFORMATIVE ESSAYS
WRITING PERSUASIVE ESSAYS
WRITING NARRATIVE ESSAYS
WRITING LETTERS

Each section is preceded by detailed teacher lesson plans and followed by a practice test focusing on the concepts and skills covered in the section, plus answer keys and scoring guides with student writing samples. These practice tests will help students prepare for the types of questions they will be asked on actual tests.

All three volumes— 4th Grade, 8th Grade, and 10th Grade— provide a wealth of useful and practical lessons to help students master basic language skills and prepare to demonstrate effective writing on standardized tests. In addition, the companion books Reading Proficiency Lessons & Activities— fourth-grade, eighth-grade, and tenth-grade levels— give classroom teachers and reading specialists another dynamic and progressive way to meet curriculum standards and competencies.

About the Author

Carol H. Behrman taught writing to students in grades 5-8 for fifteen years. She has written twenty-four books— fiction and nonfiction— for children and young adults and has conducted numerous workshops on the writing process for students, teachers, and aspiring writers. Ms. Behrman has served as writer-in-residence at Chautauqua Institution and has been an adjunct lecturer at Seton Hall University and at New York University's Writing Center.

Product Details

• Paperback: 355 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1 edition (March 27, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787965863
• ISBN-13: 978-0787965860
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 8.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #529,009 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Carol H. Behrman is the author of twenty seven books, fiction and non-fiction, for children and young adults, as well as seven writing texts used in schools throughout the U.S. snd Canada. She was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY and lived for many years in Sarasota, Florida and northern New Jersey, where she and her husband, Edward, raised three children. They presently reside in Tinton Falls, New Jersey.
Carol is a long-time teacher as well as an author. She taught for fifteen years at the Middle School in Glen Ridge New Jersey. She has also lectured and taught at New York University, Seton Hall University, Chautauqua Institute, and at many writers conferences including New Jersey Writer's Conference, Cape Cod Writer's Conference, and the Sarasota Reading Festival.
Carol began her writing career writing hundreds of short stories and articles in national periodicals. Her first book, "Catch a Dancing Star" was published in 1975 and since then, she has produced on the average of a book a year. Her most recent book was just released by Aerodale Press in April, 2011. "Freedom Passage" (ages 8 through high school) is an historical novel that takes place in 1963 during the turbulent civil rights struggle and includes thrilling episodes of time travel to pre-Civil War days.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An all-in-one literacy exercise book., March 11, 2004

By 

"rwat8954" (Coogee, NSW, Australia.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ready-To-Use Writing Proficiency Lessons & Activities, 8th Grade Level (Ready-to-Use Activities) (Paperback)

I love this book for its time saving worksheets. If you can only buy one time saving resource for supporting literacy then this is it. From morphology and syntax to metatheme and macrostructure, this book covers all the skills in accessible worksheets. Each topic has definitions and examples at sentence and text level as appropriate. The lay out of the worksheets is visually attractive with not too much text on one page, use of boxes, tables, diagrams, dot points and checklists to "chunk" the information. Each exercise provides specific instructions and achievable tasks. And it's such good value. I'm a Speech-Language Pathologist using the book in Language therapy with children with Language learning disabilities, but it is accessible enough for a student to use independantly to practice and polish their literacy skills.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Carol Behrman knows her task, January 14, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Ready-To-Use Writing Proficiency Lessons & Activities, 8th Grade Level (Ready-to-Use Activities) (Paperback)

Ready-to-Use WRITING PROFICIENCY LESSONS AND ACTIVITIES: Eighth Grade Level provides classroom teachers with a wealth of ideas to open creative windows, and enables students to reach beyond where they thought possible. Teachers will delight in the author's detailed lesson plans and practice tests. Activities and techniques designed to promote eighth grade students' writing competencies are appealing and fun.

Elementary school media specialist in Florida

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Writing Proficiency is a definite 'ready to use'., August 1, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Ready-to-Use Writing Proficiency Lessons and Activities: 8th Grade Level (Paperback)

As a former writing coach in the public school system, I can see the activities would work well at any age. Ms. Behrman has made the activities challenging yet fun, and very user-friendly for the classroom teacher.