Province
National
Imprint
Heinemann
Author(s)
Irene C. Fountas, Gay Su Pinnell
What does excellent writing instruction look like and sound like? How do successful teachers get great writers who enjoy writing? Where do teachers find the time for instruction, assessment, and test prep?
In this resource, Regie Routman demystifies the process of teaching writing well and gives you the knowledge, research, precise instructional language, and confidence you need to succeed. With Regie’s help, you will transform your classroom into an organized, joyful writing environment where students connect reading with writing every day across the curriculum, learn essential skills like grammar and spelling, and achieve higher scores on high-stakes tests through sensible, writing-based test preparation and daily classroom-based assessment.
Writing Essentials specifically and explicitly demonstrates practical, easy-to-do strategies that turn your writing instruction practices into best practices. Follow Routman’s path for successfully leading all students, including English language learners, writers who struggle, and students coping with learning disabilities—from first draft to publication. You will find expert advice and specific demonstrations on a wide variety of techniques, including demonstrating your own writing process for students organizing and managing the writing classroom conducting effective, efficient writing conferences creating meaningful rubrics for better assessment teaching various forms of narrative and informational writing, and poetry applying shared writing across the grades and across the curriculum teaching editing and revision.
In addition, Writing Essentials includes a DVD with eight three-to-four-minute video clips from primary and intermediate classrooms that show Regie conferring with writers and celebrating their work as she teaches and assesses.
These invaluable clips, and the detailed notes that accompany them, take you inside the writing conference to see its structures and procedures while the sample classroom publications, also on the DVD, reveal the exciting possibilities of working with student writers. Writing Essentials is conversational, upbeat, practical, eminently readable, illustrated with a wealth of children’s writing, and filled with proven techniques for teaching writing well and managing your instructional time more effectively.
With Routman in hand, you will not only have the inspiration to say “I can do that too,” but you will have first-rate resources and strategies to answer your questions and help make great writing instruction happen in your classroom immediately.
Irene C. Fountas is the Marie M. Clay Endowed Chair for Early Literacy and Reading Recovery at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts and director of the Center for Reading Recovery and Literacy Collaborative in the Graduate School of Education. She has been a classroom teacher, language arts specialist, and consultant in school districts across the nation and abroad. She is the recipient of the International Literacy Association’s Diane Lapp & James Flood Professional Collaborator Award, and the Greater Boston Council and the International Reading Association’s Celebrate Literacy Award. Currently, she works with administrators, coaches and teacher leaders in systemic school improvement.
Gay Su Pinnell is Professor Emerita in the School of Teaching and Learning at The Ohio State University and a member of the Reading Hall of Fame. She has extensive experience in classroom teaching, field-based research, and in developing comprehensive literacy systems. She is the recipient of the International Literacy Association’s Diane Lapp & James Flood Professional Collaborator Award, The Ohio State University Alumni Association’s Medalist Award, the International Reading Association’s Albert J. Harris Award for research in reading difficulties, the Ohio Governor’s Award, the Charles A. Dana Foundation Award, The Eastern New Mexico University Hall of Honor, and a 2018 recipient of an honorary doctorate Lesley University for her contributions to literacy education.
Fountas and Pinnell's transformative, collective and comprehensive literacy work includes a cohesive classroom literacy system for grades PreK–6 (Fountas & Pinnell Classroom™), an intervention system for grades K–12 (Leveled Literacy Intervention), an assessment system (Benchmark Assessment System for grades K–8), an extensive professional book base, and professional learning opportunities. Fountas and Pinnell continue to influence and inspire educators nationwide and abroad with resources and books such as:
While all the Fountas & Pinnell Literacy™ books, resources, and systems are deeply rooted in teacher professional learning, Irene and Gay, in collaboration with Heinemann Professional Development, offer a range of options and opportunities for professional learning designed to further develop the craft of teaching and foster a climate of collegiality and community.
Join the Fountas & Pinnell Literacy™ Community at fountasandpinnell.com to connect with Gay and Irene and thousands of educators from around the world on one of the fastest-growing online literacy communities. Continue the conversation on Twitter @FountasPinnell, on Instagram @FountasPinnell, on Facebook @FountasandPinnell or by joining The Fountas & Pinnell Literacy™ Learning Facebook Group.