Here’s valuable help for improving students’ writing through a sound, illustrative combination of research-based authentic writing samples and positive coaching conversations. A guide, an incentive, and a model for success, this resource uses real classroom writing and pedagogical elements that provide specific context, research connections, teacher talk, and most importantly, students’ writing examples to help teachers teach writing to preschool through grade 6 students.
Writing Is Like Real Talk! encourages teachers to reflect on how they teach writing–and to use what they learn from students’ writing to inform their instruction. In addition to the outstanding pedagogical aids, each chapter includes authentic writing samples and coaching conversations specific to students’ needs. Armed with these classroom-based scenarios, instructors can enhance the development of teacher talk that acknowledges students as writers, facilitates students’ meaning making, and enables students to move toward writer consciousness.
Alison Black is Associate Professor in the Division of Education at the State University of New York at Oneonta where she teaches literacy courses at the graduate and undergraduate levels. She has published articles in a variety of areas, including a focus on teaching online via asynchronous discussion, the NCATE review process, multicultural education, and preservice teacher concerns. She has also published a book, A Comprehensive Guide to Readers Theatre: Enhancing Fluency and Comprehension in Middle School and Beyond. Alison was a K–12 teacher, media specialist, and storyteller before moving into higher education. Her work with elementary students and readers’ theatre led to her interest in children’s writing.
Jane D. Miller has 35 years of teaching experience, including serving as an elementary classroom teacher, a K–12 Reading Specialist and Reading Recovery teacher, and a lecturer at the State University of New York at Oneonta. Her work with Reading Recovery has especially influenced her teaching of candidates in a teacher education program with a focus on the validation of students’ writing attempts and the building of a strong foundation that will enable students to bridge the gap between what they know and what they need to know.