There have been several new additions to the RRVWP's library in the past few months. Stop by and check them - and the rest of our collection - out!
Jennifer Jacobson - No More "I'm Done!"
Disregarding the false notion that writing instruction in the primary
grades needs to be mostly teacher directed, Jennifer Jacobson shows
teachers how to develop a primary writer's workshop that helps nurture
independent, engaged writers.
No More "I'm Done!" demonstrates
how to create a more productive, engaging, and rewarding writer's
workshop. Jennifer guides teachers from creating a supportive classroom
environment through establishing effective routines; shows teachers how
to set up a writer's workshop; and provides an entire year of
developmentally appropriate mini-lessons that build confidence and,
ultimately, independence.
Jeff Anderson & Deborah Dean - Revision Decisions
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. Jeff Anderson and Deborah Dean have written a book that
engages writers in the tinkering, playing, and thinking that are
essential to clarify and elevate writing.
Focusing on
sentences, Jeff and Deborah use mentor texts to show the myriad
possibilities that exist for revision. Essential to their process is the
concept of classroom talk. Readers will be shown how revision lessons
can be discussed in a generative way, and how each student can benefit
from talking through the revision process as a group.
Revision Decisions focuses
on developing both the writing and the writer. The easy-to-follow
lessons make clear and accessible the rigorous thinking and the
challenging process of making writing work. Narratives, setup lessons,
templates, and details about how to move students toward independence
round out this essential book. Additionally, the authors weave the
language, reading, and writing goals of the Common Core and other
standards into an integrated and connected practice.
Jake Wizner - Worth Writing About
"Who am I?" This is the question that many adolescents ask during the turbulent middle and high school years. In Worth Writing About: Exploring Memoir with Adolescents,
Jake Wizner addresses how searching for the answer to this question
leads his students to reflection, to reading, and ultimately to deeper,
more meaningful writing.
Based on his experience teaching eighth-grade English for nearly two
decades, Jake believes that a well-designed memoir unit not only aligns
with the Common Core State Standards but also forges community in the
classroom, encourages kids to read nonfiction, and works wonders with
students who struggle with their writing -- or with their lives.
Worth Writing About addresses the most common challenges
teachers face when teaching memoir writing: How do you help students who
say that nothing interesting has happened in their lives? How do you
help students balance what is meaningful with what is too personal to
share? How do you help students overcome the "I don't remember"
syndrome?
Jake -- who has published a young-adult novel and often shares his
own writing with his students -- also delves into the craft of writing,
from using mentor texts to crafting leads and memorable endings. He uses
student models from his own classroom to show the deep, important work
his students produce during the memoir unit.
The memoir unit gets kids to write about real stuff -- the things
that matter to them. In the process, Jake believes, they learn more
about themselves, their relationships, the way they view the world, and
how they want to move forward into the future.
Kate Messner - 59 Reasons to Write
In order to teach writing effectively, teachers must be writers
themselves. They must experience the same uncertainty of starting a new
draft and then struggling to revise. As they learn to move past the fear
of failure, they discover the nervous rush and exhilaration of sharing
work with an audience, just as their students do. Only by engaging in
the real work of writing can teachers become part of the writing
community they dream of creating for their students.
Ralph Fletcher - Making Nonfiction From Scratch
Do you have students whose nonfiction writing is formulaic, devoid of energy and voice? In Making Nonfiction from Scratch
bestselling PD and children’s book author Ralph Fletcher offers a
candid critique of how nonfiction writing is often taught in schools and
gives teachers the inspiration and strategies they need to help their
students write authentic nonfiction.
Skilled nonfiction writers draw
on strategies, techniques, and craft found in other genres: poetry,
comedy, even mystery. Without those elements, nonfiction would be dry
and dull. Making Nonfiction from Scratch helps bring all of those
aspects together and shows how each genre can enrich nonfiction
writing. Ralph emphasizes the power of choice, mentor texts, and
nonfiction read-alouds in making nonfiction an everyday part of
classrooms.
“Classroom Connection” sections throughout the book
suggest immediate, practical strategies for putting the ideas in the
book to use. Two case studies and a chapter on the dos and don’ts of
nonfiction writing instruction round out this short, practical book.
Any informational writing should be insightful, accurate, and well
organized – but it doesn’t have to be boring. Ralph invites you to make
your classroom a place where students can create delicious nonfiction
full of passion, voice, and insight.
Karen V. Hansen - Encounter on the Great Plains
In 1904, the first Scandinavian settlers moved onto the Spirit Lake
Dakota Indian Reservation. These land-hungry immigrants struggled
against severe poverty, often becoming the sharecropping tenants of
Dakota landowners. Yet the homesteaders' impoverishment did not impede
their quest to acquire Indian land, and by 1929 Scandinavians owned more
reservation acreage than their Dakota neighbors. Norwegian homesteader
Helena Haugen Kanten put it plainly: "We stole the land from the
Indians."
With this largely unknown story at its center,
Encounter on the Great Plains brings together two dominant processes in
American history: the unceasing migration of newcomers to North America,
and the protracted dispossession of indigenous peoples who inhabited
the continent.
Drawing on fifteen years of archival research and
130 oral histories, Karen V. Hansen explores the epic issues of
co-existence between settlers and Indians and the effect of racial
hierarchies, both legal and cultural, on marginalized peoples. Hansen
offers a wealth of intimate detail about daily lives and community
events, showing how both Dakotas and Scandinavians resisted assimilation
and used their rights as new citizens to combat attacks on their
cultures. In this flowing narrative, women emerge as resourceful agents
of their own economic interests. Dakota women gained autonomy in the use
of their allotments, while Scandinavian women staked and "proved up"
their own claims.
Hansen chronicles the intertwined stories of
Dakotas and immigrants-women and men, farmers, domestic servants, and
day laborers. Their shared struggles reveal efforts to maintain a
language, sustain a culture, and navigate their complex ties to more
than one nation. The history of the American West cannot be told without
these voices: their long connections, intermittent conflicts, and
profound influence over one another defy easy categorization and provide
a new perspective on the processes of immigration and land taking.
