craft · mentor texts · professional books · writing

Sharing Some Exciting News

Stacey Shubitz
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.

Published by Stacey Shubitz

I am a literacy consultant who focuses on writing workshop. I've been working with K-6 teachers and students since 2009. Prior to that, I was a fourth and fifth-grade teacher in New York City and Rhode Island. I'm the author of Craft Moves (Stenhouse Publishers, 2016) and the co-author of Jump Into Writing (Zaner-Bloser, 2021), Welcome to Writing Workshop (Stenhouse Publishers, 2019), and Day By Day (Stenhouse, 2010). I live in Central Pennsylvania with my husband and children. In my free time, I enjoy swimming, doing Pilates, cooking, baking, making ice cream, and reading novels.

32 thoughts on “Sharing Some Exciting News”

  3. Sad that I’m leaving the classroom before your book gets published, but it will be a tremendous resource for all of us. You are providing something that is valuable to busy and overworked teachers in this book. How will you provide craft moves for new books as they are published (here on TWT)?

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      1. Sorry to be confusing – I was wondering how you will provide the same information that is in your book for new books (that are published after your book heads to your publisher) that would also make great mentor texts? Maybe those books will be part of a 2nd edition of the book? I hope you’ll continue to share ideas with us at TWT (as you always have) for how to use new books in the classroom.

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  8. What a fantastic topic! Can’t wait for 2016. I couldn’t be happier, unless your name was George R. R. Martin and you were announcing “Winds of Winter”!

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