What You Know by Heart: How to Develop Curriculum for Your Writing Workshop [Paperback]

Katie Wood Ray (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0325003645 | ISBN-13: 978-0325003641 | Publication Date: June 1, 2002

No one can say it better than Lucy Calkins-Katie Ray has written a wise, comforting, intimate book. It goes to the heart of where good ideas for teaching of good writing originate: from yourself and your own experience.

As Katie shows, the most profound and effective curriculum can result from your own deep understanding of quality writing-what you know about writing through your own and others' writings and through your reading. And the best teaching can result from what you can wrap your heart and mind around and communicate to your students. It is this very personal approach and contagious enthusiasm that Katie brings to bear on creating curriculum for her own writing workshops. Her book shows how you can do it for your own.

In Part One, Katie takes a close look at the lines of thinking you can use to find curriculum in your own writing experiences. In Part Two, she shows how to use the same lines of thinking to find curriculum in your everyday reading life. Along with her own inimitable writing style, Katie sprinkles special features throughout her book as helpful tips for thinking about your own writing workshop and curriculum development, including:

• minilessons and "curriculum chunks"
• "Thinking it Through" boxes with questions and things to try
• "understandings" and strategies
• notebook-keeping tips accompanied by Katie's own handwritten journal entries
• transcripts of interviews with writers
• references for further reading.

Follow Katie's example. Write like a teacher of writing. Read like a teacher of writing. Then teach from your own experience. And watch as you and your students flourish like never before.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“In this wise, comforting, intimate book, Katie Ray takes her readers by the hand and brings us home to ourselves. This is where ideas for teaching writing come from, she says, brushing aside the distracting clutter, quick fixes, and one-size-fits-all panaceas. She hands us a pen, a book, and a reminder of all that matters most.”–Lucy Calkins

About the Author

Between her passion for elementary writing instruction and a love of children's literature, Katie Wood Ray found herself asking, "What if children were introduced to key qualities of good writing in the context of illustrations?" This question led to the research behind In Pictures and In Words. The answer was simple yet powerful: "The thinking students do while reading picture books can help them see the connection between what words and illustrations do to make meaning." As an author of bestselling Heinemann books such as Already Ready, Study Driven, About the Authors, and What You Know By Heart and as a member of Heinemann Professional Development Services, Katie has always given teachers resources and PD that transform writing instruction and help children discover a lifelong love of writing. A former Associate Professor at Western Carolina University Katie is now a full time writer and researcher of the teaching of writing. With a particular focus on the study of writing craft, she leads teacher workshops and summer institutes across the nation related to the teaching of writing. Her professional background includes both elementary and middle school teaching experience and two years as a staff developer at The Reading and Writing Project, Teachers College, Columbia University. She was also the coeditor of the journal Primary Voices K-6, a publication of the National Council of Teachers of English. Katie is also the author or coauthor of Spelling in Use: Looking Closely at Spelling in the Whole Language Classrooms (1996, NCTE), Wondrous Words: Writers and Writing in the Elementary Classroom (1999, NCTE), and The Writing Workshop: Working Through the Hard Parts (And Theyre All Hard Parts) (2001, NCTE). A frequent speaker at conferences and summer institutes around the country, Katie also has extensive experience teaching teachers in workshop and demonstration settings. Katie Wood Ray is a Heinemann Professional Development presenter. EC0410

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Heinemann (June 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0325003645
• ISBN-13: 978-0325003641
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 7.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #92,380 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Katie Wood Ray is the author of the Heinemann titles Already Ready (2008), Study Driven (2007), About the Authors (2004) and its DVD companion The Teaching Behind ABOUT THE AUTHORS (2005), and What You Know by Heart (2002). A former Associate Professor at Western Carolina University Katie is now a full time writer and researcher of the teaching of writing. With a particular focus on the study of writing craft, she leads teacher workshops and summer institutes across the nation related to the teaching of writing. Her professional background includes both elementary and middle school teaching experience and two years as a staff developer at The Reading and Writing Project, Teachers College, Columbia University. She was also the coeditor of the journal Primary Voices K - 6, a publication of the National Council of Teachers of English. Katie is also the author or coauthor of Spelling in Use: Looking Closely at Spelling in the Whole Language Classrooms (1996, NCTE), Wondrous Words: Writers and Writing in the Elementary Classroom (1999, NCTE), and The Writing Workshop: Working Through the Hard Parts (And They're All Hard Parts) (2001, NCTE). A frequent speaker at conferences and summer institutes around the country, Katie also has extensive experience teaching teachers in workshop and demonstration settings.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Confused about mentor texts in mini-lessons?, July 22, 2003

By 

"viciousheh" (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What You Know by Heart: How to Develop Curriculum for Your Writing Workshop (Paperback)

Beware teachers, only read this book if you are ready to dive deeper into what it means to teach writing, as a writer! This is the first book I've read that explicitly breaks down how to use mentor texts and my own writing to support student learning in a writer's workshop. Katie Wood Ray uses wonderful examples of how to write and read like a teacher of writing. The first part of the book provides a process to study our own writing for curriculum development. The second part focuses on mentor texts; using published authors as co-teachers. Her goal is to pomote metacognition in the teachers that read this book and have them change their instruction in a powerful way. This is a slow read, but only because you have to stop to think and apply the concepts. Luckily, she created "Think It Through" boxes to help guide your reflections. I closed this book with a solid understanding of how I can use my own writing and use other authors to teach my writer's workshop. If you are using the writer's workshop approach, but don't consider yourself a writer, read this book. It will help you realze that you already know these things by heart.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What You Know By Heart Hits Home, June 17, 2003

By 

Ruth Culham (Beaverton, Oregon United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What You Know by Heart: How to Develop Curriculum for Your Writing Workshop (Paperback)

There are few books on the market for writing teachers with such warm, insightful, fresh, and practical advice in them as this wonderful text by Katie Wood Ray. Her stories ring true, her advice is sage, and the layout of this piece is a knock out. I especially love the text suggestions to match curriculum statements in the appendix. This is real stuff - and oh, so very needed. My copy is marked up from the first page to the last; I just love this book. Any teacher wanting to make writing work more effectively in their classroom would do well to take this book to heart.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Confused about mentor texts in mini-lessons?, July 22, 2003

By 

"viciousheh" (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What You Know by Heart: How to Develop Curriculum for Your Writing Workshop (Paperback)

Beware teachers, only read this book if you are ready to dive deeper into what it means to teach writing, as a writer! This is the first book I've read that explicitly breaks down how to use mentor texts and my own writing to support student learning in a writer's workshop. Katie Wood Ray uses wonderful examples of how to write and read like a teacher of writing. The first part of the book provides a process to study our own writing for curriculum development. The second part focuses on mentor texts; using published authors as co-teachers. Her goal is to pomote metacognition in the teachers that read this book and have them change their instruction in a powerful way. This is a slow read, but only because you have to stop to think and apply the concepts. Luckily, she created "Think It Through" boxes to help guide your reflections. I closed this book with a solid understanding of how I can use my own writing and use other authors to teach my writer's workshop. If you are using the writer's workshop approach, but don't consider yourself a writer, read this book. It will help you realze that you already know these things by heart.