“Is this right? Is this how it’s supposed to look?” Adolescent writers often ask these kinds of questions because traditional grammar instruction focuses too much on what’s right or what’s wrong. The fear of making a mistake hides the true power of conventions – the creation of meaning, purpose, and effect, the ultimate reading-writing connection.
Join Jeff Anderson, with Travis Leech and Melinda Clark, as they explore grammar in a new way in Patterns of Power: Inviting Adolescent Writers into the Conventions of Language, Grades 6–8. Let’s lift middle school writers by focusing on possibility and producing effective writing that will transfer to the classroom and beyond.
Revision is often a confusing and difficult process for students, but it’s also the most important part of the writing process. If students leave our classrooms not knowing how to move a piece of writing forward, we’ve failed them. Revision Decisions will help teachers develop the skills students need in an ever-evolving writing, language, and reading world.
In his new book 10 Things Every Writer Needs to Know, Jeff Anderson focuses on developing the concepts and application of ten essential aspects of good writing: motion, models, focus, detail, form, frames, cohesion, energy, words, and clutter. Throughout the book, Jeff provides dozens of model texts, both fiction and nonfiction, that bring alive the ten things every writer needs to know. By analyzing strong mentor texts, young writers explore, discover, and apply what makes good writing work. Jeff dedicates a chapter to each of the ten things every writer needs to know and provides mini-lessons, mentor texts, writing process strategies, and classroom tips.