Catching Up on Conventions: Grammar Lessons for Middle School Writers

• make key grammatical rules explicit and scaffold learning through highly structured, tightly focused lessons
• strengthen students’ narrative and expository writing
• give students specific tools for editing and revising
• support code-switching between the language students use outside the classroom and Standard English.

• targeted lessons that slide into even the most packed curriculum.
• teaching based on widely recognized best practices that are proven to work.
• suggestions for instructional language and assessment practices that empower linguistic choice rather than “correct” or devalue the language skills students bring to school.

Mary Ehrenworth, Senior Deputy Director of the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project and co-editor for the Units of Study for Teaching Reading, Middle School series, works with schools and districts around the globe, and is a frequent keynote speaker at Project events and national and international conferences. Mary’s interest in critical literacies, deep interpretation, and reading and writing for social justice all inform the books she has authored or co-authored in the Reading and Writing Units of Study series as well as her many articles and other books on instruction and leadership.

You can connect with her on Twitter @MaryEhrenworth.