The Better Writing Breakthrough: Connecting Student Thinking and Discussion to Inspire Great Writing

Every teacher knows the challenge of trying to engage reluctant readers and struggling writers—students whose typical response to a writing prompt is a few sentence fragments scribbled on a sheet of paper followed by an elaborate shrug of the shoulders.

The best way to engage less confident readers and writers is to give them something powerful to think about. The Discourse and Writing Cycle explores writing as a means to focus student thinking, fuel deeper learning, and build complex understanding in English, social studies, math, and science. This field-tested approach from well-respected experts Eleanor Dougherty, Laura Billings, and Terry Roberts is designed for use in grades 4–12.

The book explores the three interrelated sequences of the cycle—the Discourse Sequence, the Transition to Writing Sequence, and the Writing Sequence—and includes classroom examples and sample lesson plans from across the content areas. The cycle will inspire you as a teacher and help you to inspire your students to write with confidence and competence.

“How often we dim or extinguish the creative sparks that can come from good writing! William Butler Yeats proclaimed that ‘Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.’ This book lights the fire for the teaching of writing.” —John Hattie, author of the Visible Learning books