Write With Me : Partnering With Parents in Writing Instruction

In this book, teacher and author Lynda Wade Sentz presents innovative strategies for involving parents in their children’s writing instruction. Elementary school teachers can use these strategies to expand writing instruction into the home and enlist parents as "writing role models" who help to reinforce classroom learning.

Designed for use in conjunction with your current writing program, these activities are engaging and enjoyable. They include the Partner Journal and the Partner Scrapbook, along with several others that enable parents and children to communicate via the written word.

Contents include:

• Parents: Their First Writing Teachers
• Establishing Parent-Child Writing Partnerships
• Getting Parents on Your Side
• Ideas to Strengthen Parent Partners

According to Sentz, "Parents are the most underutilized resource in education, yet they are the most powerful tool in the teacher’s arsenal." When writing is encouraged in the home, children develop an appreciation for good writing and are increasingly motivated to write themselves. Let this book help you put your greatest asset – parents – to good use, and begin to see significant improvement in the writing of each of your students!

Lynda Wade Sentz graduated from State University College at Buffalo with a Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education and English Education. She received her Master of Science in English Education from State University College at Buffalo and holds New York State Teacher Certification in both Childhood Education and Secondary English Education. She is currently a classroom teacher at Cloverbank Elementary School, Frontier Central School District in Hamburg, New York, which lies just outside the city of Buffalo. Lynda has taught in both public school and parochial school settings in general education, resource classroom and inclusion classroom settings.
Lynda has authored numerous children's stories, poems, and a large volume of newspaper articles and editorial pieces. Her work has appeared in Buffalo News, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, Children's Playmate Magazine, Hopscotch Magazine, Boys Quest Magazine, Bee Group Newspapers, Hamburg Sun, Western New York Family Magazine, and Medical Community Digest, to name a few. In addition, her fiction work has been acquired by Florida State Education Department for use in the F-CAT assessment administered in Florida schools. Lynda is married and is the mother of four sons, who all learned at a tender age to craft their words with care.