Explores the contradictions between what is expected of teachers and the education and support they have received, and provides teachers with advice on how to teach writing and generate their students' interest in writing.

Educators want young people to grow up knowing that writing is an important and deeply satisfying life skill, one that helps them make more sense of themselves and their world, and one that helps them to communicate effectively. Sadly, too often writing becomes merely an exercise in ‘getting words right’, or writing to teacher-prescribed tasks. Developing Young Writers in the Classroom explores the principles of developing literacy through authorship, allowing children to describe, question and celebrate their own experiences and personal creativity. The book offers detailed guidance, supported by planning documents, poetry and prose, examples of children’s work and stimulating visuals. Inspiring topics explored include: creating a classroom environment which supports an independent writer students’ lives brought into the classroom finding significance in our experiences the use of memoir for recording experiences description in all kinds of writing choosing and writing about a character writing in all curriculum areas linking reading and writing using other authors as mentors and teachers collaborative learning. Illustrated throughout with accessible activities and ideas from literature and poetry, Developing Young Writers in the Classroom is an essential resource for all teachers wishing to inspire writing in the classroom.

"Sound Heritage is the first study of music in the historic house museum, featuring contributions from both music and heritage scholars and professionals in a richly interdisciplinary approach to central issues. It examines how music materials can be used to create narratives about past inhabitants and their surroundings - including aspects of social and cultural life beyond the activity of music making itself - and explores how music as sound, material, and practice can be more consistently and engagingly integrated into the curation and interpretation of historic houses. The volume is structured around a selection of thematic chapters and a series of shorter case studies, each focusing on a specific house, object or project. Key themes include: Different types of historic house, including the case of the composer or musician house; what can be learned from museums and galleries about the use of sound and music and what may not transfer to the historic house setting; Musical instruments as part of a wider collection; questions of restoration and public use; and the demands of particular collection types such as sheet music; Musical objects and pieces of music as storytelling components, and the use of music to affectively colour narratives or experiences. This is a pioneering study that will appeal to all those interested in the intersection between Music and Museum and Heritage Studies. It will also be of interest to scholars and researchers of Music History, Popular Music, Performance Studies and Material Culture"--

Why you need a writing revolution in your classroom and how to lead it The Writing Revolution (TWR) provides a clear method of instruction that you can use no matter what subject or grade level you teach. The model, also known as The Hochman Method, has demonstrated, over and over, that it can turn weak writers into strong communicators by focusing on specific techniques that match their needs and by providing them with targeted feedback. Insurmountable as the challenges faced by many students may seem, The Writing Revolution can make a dramatic difference. And the method does more than improve writing skills. It also helps: Boost reading comprehension Improve organizational and study skills Enhance speaking abilities Develop analytical capabilities The Writing Revolution is as much a method of teaching content as it is a method of teaching writing. There's no separate writing block and no separate writing curriculum. Instead, teachers of all subjects adapt the TWR strategies and activities to their current curriculum and weave them into their content instruction. But perhaps what's most revolutionary about the TWR method is that it takes the mystery out of learning to write well. It breaks the writing process down into manageable chunks and then has students practice the chunks they need, repeatedly, while also learning content.

For nearly three decades, writers from the University of Arkansas Programs in Creative Writing have traveled to Arkansas's public and private schools to enrich classrooms by contributing a unique dose of teaching methods. The workshops and sessions these writers teach open avenues for student creativity and sharpen students' language skills across the state. Writers in the Schools combines and condenses these proven techniques. The lesson in this valuable text is that the imagination is the greatest tool a student possesses. Instead of lectures, the book relies on hands-on exercises and time-tested activity plans that start students writing within minutes of discussing the basics of the writing process. Included are dozens of ideas to spark student creativity and hone rough drafts into finished poems and short stories.

This book illustrates how teachers of elementary-age writers bring their beliefs about teaching and learning to life--through the visions they hold for writers, writing, and the world, as well as through the decisions they make every day in their classrooms. Teachers today face contextual challenges and pressures that may conflict with their visions of effective teaching. Katie Van Sluys demonstrates how to (re)claim our professional practice to ensure that young people have the opportunity to become competent, constantly growing writers who use writing to think, communicate, and pose as well as solve problems. Using NCTE's Beliefs about the Teaching of Writing as a starting point for understandings about writing research and what it can tell us about effective writing practices in elementary classrooms, Van Sluys invites us to articulate our own beliefs as we explore why and what we write, how we write and how we teach, how we assess progress, and how we advocate for the practices we believe in. Through real classroom examples and teacher and student reflections, she helps us understand how the decisions that both we and our students make today can help them not only learn to write well but also to use writing to create the world they want to live in.

Highly practical and accessible, this indispensable book provides clear-cut strategies for improving K-12 writing instruction. The contributors are leading authorities who demonstrate proven ways to teach different aspects of writing, with chapters on planning, revision, sentence construction, handwriting, spelling, and motivation. The use of the Internet in instruction is addressed, and exemplary approaches to teaching English-language learners and students with special needs are discussed. The book also offers best-practice guidelines for designing an effective writing program. Focusing on everyday applications of current scientific research, the book features many illustrative case examples and vignettes.

The literary arts organization, Writers in the Schools (WITS), fosters critical thinking through the teaching of creative writing (Brouillette, 2008; Deasy, 2002). Arts education has been marginalized throughout time, and economic and political issues continue to affect the presence of teaching artists in schools. The researcher of this qualitative study interviewed nine writers employed by WITS and used their reflective essays written at the end of their teaching experiences to document their perceptions regarding (1) their personal effectiveness as teaching artists and (2) the instructional effectiveness of the WITS organization in promoting creative writing, and factors influencing each. The findings indicated that the WITS writers interviewed felt that they made an impact in the classroom by building student confidence and making a difference with students in nontraditional ways. WITS writers taught the process approach to writing and taught in a variety of genres. The majority of the WITS writers interviewed taught poetry first to help students gain comfort with writing, and most of the WITS lessons were guided by a literary element. The unique position of the visiting WITS writer in the classroom motivated students. Free from the pressures of getting students to score well on standardized tests, these WITS writers created a curriculum based on students' needs and interests and focused on self-expression. Therefore, student mastery was defined on an individualized basis, not by whole-class objectives. WITS writers encountered challenges when students were pulled out of their WITS class time for standardized test preparation and when classroom management styles differed from the classroom teacher. These WITS writers believed it was important to bring their unique style of teaching into the classroom, but to work within the parameters of the WITS philosophy and guidelines. They were committed to the WITS organization and the students they taught, and they were effective teachers of writing who made an impact in the classroom. Recommendations for future research are included.

We want our young people to grow up knowing that writing is an important and deeply satisfying life skill, one that helps them make more sense of themselves and their world, one that helps them to communicate effectively. Much more than a skill, writing is the creativity of each child making itself known through the role of author. Unfortunately, too often writing becomes merely an exercise in 'getting words right', or writing to teacher-prescribed tasks. Authorship is much richer than that, it is a means of describing, pondering on, clarifying, questioning, and celebrating aspects of their lives. I've Got Something to Say is the journey of Gail Loane's experiences in the classroom as she learned to teach writing in a way that enabled her students to develop and enjoy their own authorship. Between the pages is the journey-map for teachers - and parents - of primary and secondary school students to successfully assist their young writers to authorship.