Journeys: The Teaching of Writing in the Elementary Classrooms

Journeys: The Teaching of Writing in the Elementary Classrooms

As any writing teacher will tell you, writing is about the journey, not the destination. This practical new book takes that idea to heart and presents a map for the trip based on the five elements of the Writer's Workshop : mini-lessons, reading, composing, sharing, and continuous assessment. Two-part chapters first address the type of writing being considered—poetry, story, expository, journal, personal, or persuasive—in light of the five workshop elements; then, provide vignettes from three elementary classrooms that show the workshop elements being effectively implemented. Along the way, student artifacts from grades 1, 3, and 5—and the insights of three teachers from these grades—bolster the book's narrative. For elementary school English teachers. As any writing teacher will tell you, writing is about the journey, not the destination. This practical new book takes that idea to heart and presents a map for the trip based on the five elements of the Writer's Workshop: mini-lessons, reading, composing, sharing, and continuous assessment. Two-part chapters first address the type of writing being considered—poetry, story, expository, journal, personal, or persuasive—in light of the five workshop elements; then, provide vignettes from three elementary classrooms that show the workshop elements being effectively implemented. Along the way, student artifacts from grades 1, 3, and 5—and the insights of three teachers from these grades—bolster the book's narrative. For elementary school English teachers. Carolyn L. Piazza is an associate professor of reading and language arts and elementary education at Florida State University, where she teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in language arts, written composition, and applied linguistics. She also spends each semester supervising student teachers and working with classroom teachers in the public schools. Dr. Piazza is the author of several professional works on language and composition and, for a time, wrote a weekly literacy column, Ask Carolyn, in the local newspaper. Her most recent book, Multiple Forms of Literacy: Teaching Literacy and the Arts, brings together her passion for language with the visual and performing arts. She enjoys gardening, studying Italian, and, above all, her two Yorkies. "I should see the garden far better," said Alice to herself, "if I could get to the top of that hill: and here's a path that leads straight to it—at least, no it doesn't do that." After going a few yards along the path, and turning several sharp corners—"but I suppose it will at last. But how curious it twists! It's more like a corkscrew than a path!" — Through the Looking Glass (Carroll, 1872) Teaching writing is filled with twists and turns; it is more like a corkscrew than a straight path. Seldom does it move from point A to point B without a hitch. New demands are always popping up unexpectedly, while familiar paths are often riddled with unmarked passages. Nothing about teaching writing is tension free or foolproof. It is a lifelong journey that takes persistence, commitment, and a desire to improve. Teachers who embark on this journey will find that, although teaching writing is a lofty goal, never before in our history has so much been written about it. Countless studies building on the pioneering research of the 1970s—and now only a keystroke away—offer plenty of advice to guide instructional practice. The challenge, however, is making sense of this voluminous body of research and presenting it in a way that is conceptually sound and practical. Journeys: The Teaching of Writing in Elementary Classrooms provides such a conceptual framework for planning, implementing, and evaluating instruction and for presenting the strategies and skills necessary for achieving various kinds of writing. This framework is intended not only to create essential links between research and practice but also to place all writing advice and instruction within a meaningful context that considers student needs and development, types of writing tasks, curricular goals, and ongoing assessment. Accordingly, you will not find separate chapters on grammar or assessment, prewriting or reading, spelling or the writing process. Instead, strategies and skills of the craft are integrated in ways that reflect natural connections, grounded in context, and presented when most needed or appropriate. In addition to the book's conceptual framework and set of practices, the examples and details of its application should inspire a love and passion for writing and what it can do. The journey metaphor drives this point home. The fact that writing is not simply about the destination but about the quality of the journey is something every teacher understands. Teachers want their students to enjoy writing, to see it as an adventure filled with fascination and endless discoveries. In times of accountability and widespread testing, it is all too easy to lose sight of this. As