Sharing Some Exciting News

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NewsI couldn’t be happier to announce my second professional book will be published by Stenhouse Publishers. The working title is Craft Moves: How to Use Mentor Texts in the Classroom. It will be a book for teachers who want to use mentor texts to lift the level of their students’ writing. The book will provide teachers with a variety of explanations and examples for ways to use children’s literature in writing workshop.  There will also be a bunch of craft tables teachers can use to lead small group lessons with a variety (e.g., informational, narrative) picture books.  Further, Craft Moves will assist teachers as they think through the most important craft moves to help students become better writers.

One thing I’ve learned from consulting with teachers is that many are strapped for time. Not all schools give teachers 60 minutes for writing workshop. Therefore, Craft Moves will honor teachers’ time in two ways.  First, like I do here on Two Writing Teachers, I’ll suggest books that can do double- and triple-duty in the classroom. This is important because some teachers only have time for one read aloud daily.  Second, each small group lesson will be based geared for students’ experience levels (e.g., inexperienced, mid-level, and/or sophisticated writers).  This will help teachers maximize conferring and strategy lesson time since they’ll be able to teach a small group of writers with the same need and level of experience. This will provide teachers with more time to meet the needs of a greater number of students in a given workshop period.

So that’s the scoop! I’m delighted to be working with the folks at Stenhouse again! The manuscript is due to my editor, Bill Varner, in July 2015. The book should be available in early 2016.
Category : craft, mentor texts, professional books, writing