25 Mini-Lessons for Teaching Writing (Grades 3-6) (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Much like you and me, children find that getting started is the hardest part of writing..." (more)
Key Phrases: proofreading marks, ask your students, water tigers, Student Activity, Space Mountain, Story Bank (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Quick Lessons That Help Students Become Effective Writers
Ten-minute lessons on choosing and focusing topics, writing titles and leads that entice readers, crafting great endings and much more. Includes ideas for extending the lessons, editing and proofreading, mini-lessons and sample student work to use as models.

About the Author

Adele Fiderer has extensive experience as a classroom teacher and language arts staff developer. Currently, she is an education writer, and is the author of several Scholastic Teaching Resources, including the popular 25 Mini-Lessons for Teaching Writing and Practical Assessments for Literature-Based Reading Classrooms. Adele also serves as a consultant for several school districts in New York, presenting workshops and inservice courses. The best rewards of her work, she says, are the wonderful ideas and insights she collects from experienced and generous teachers to share with others through her books.

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Teaching Strategies (January 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 059020940X
• ISBN-13: 978-0590209403
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.4 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #84,658 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

115 of 119 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book solved our problem!, December 16, 1999

By A Customer

This book is fantastic! Our son (age 9) is extremely bright and a good reader and has always been an excellent student. Now in 3rd grade, there is an emphasis on writing in his classroom and for some reason he developed what the teacher described as a "mental block" about writing, because he didn't know how to get started. He would get anxious and upset and end up in tears, saying "I don't know what to write."

I bought a few different books to help with the challenge, and this book was by far the most valuable. It got him past his mental block. He and I do one mini-lesson each week at home, on the weekends when we are relaxed. The mini-lessons are short, focused and fun. In just a few short weeks, our son has made progress both at home and in the classroom. I even consulted with a professional tutor in our area, who said that we were on the right track by using this book - she was very impressed with it.

Thank you Adele Fiderer!

99 of 103 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent, September 28, 1998

By	Hollis Phillips ([e-mail]) (Seoul Korea) - See all my reviews

Using lively student examples, plain language and common-sense teaching, Fiderer has reduced the complex notion of leads (and attention getting sentences) to a bite sided and useful form: a chart in fact. The text is deceptively thin, yet chuck full of wonderful ideas which easily work just as well (after certain modifications) with my high school aged kids as I imagine it would with the elementary school children it was originally designed for; there is much useful material to be absorbed within this text. The author "shows" rather than "tells" how to write, teach and learn; frankly, it is difficult not to love this text and style. Her running theory seems to be have the students do and discover writing as the teacher does (with the class) the same.

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quick and easy, December 17, 2001

By A Customer

The 4th grade at our school decided to try this book out after a writing inservice where the presenter used over half of the book for her material. I have to admit, we're only half way through the book, but the results so far have been awesome. The kids are really showing huge jumps in their writing ability. The lessons are short and sequential. Each one has blacklines to repo or make overheads. The students are really starting to see what good writing looks like, and they're doing it. My favorite part is that this isn't a textbook with pages of theories but a real usable book that an overburdened elementary teacher can pick up and start using effectively immediately.