About the Book
"True this is a book for teachers, but ultimately it is a book for students. This is a book about using every avenue possible —whole group instruction, small group instruction, partner work, charts, thoughtful language (just to name a few!) to discover all that students know and are able to do and to invite them into co-crafting the instruction that matches their goals and their aspirations. Melanie Meehan has written the book that maps out bit by bit how to become a writing teacher worthy of the children we are privileged to teach."
- Shana Frazin, Co-Author of Unlocking the Power of Classroom Talk
Promote Authentic Writing Through Student-Centered Instruction
Writing instruction continues to shift with the onset of new digital resources, demanding a constant reevaluation of best practices. Student-centered, responsive instruction helps build authentic writing opportunities while allowing room for choice and creativity.
Part of the Five-to-Thrive series, Answers to Your Biggest Questions About Teaching Elementary Writing serves as a go-to desk companion designed to meet you at the moment you need answers about writing instruction. The just-in-time approach makes accessible:
Practical teaching strategies on essential topics, such as building a classroom community of writers, deciding on instructional approaches, and using assessment to inform instruction
Online printables for planning and in-class note-taking
Suggestions for seminal readings and resources to go deeper into each topic area
Classroom examples, strategies, and tips to put into practice right away
Designed for early career teachers to learn the five most important things to put theory into practice, this guide is also timely for veteran teachers to discover up-to-date practices in the field of writing. By infusing equity and cultural relevance throughout instruction and using assessment data in service of students, educators can value and reinforce the identities of young writers.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Chapter 1: How do I Build and Maintain a Writing Community?
Chapter 2: What Should Students Know and Be Able to Do As Writers?
Chapter 3: What Are Key Instructional Practices to Know and Use?
Chapter 4 How do I Use Assessment For Students’ Benefit?
Chapter 5: How do you shift agency from teacher to students in the writing classroom?
References
About the Author :
Having begun her teaching career as a special education teacher, Melanie has been the Elementary Writing and Social Studies Coordinator in Simsbury, Connecticut since 2012, and her passion for writing has led to several books and publications.
Melanie’s first book, Every Child Can Write, was published by Corwin Press in October 2019. With a foundational belief that all students can learn to write, this book provides strategies and resources that teachers can use, duplicate, and gather inspiration from. The Responsive Writing Teacher, co-written with Kelsey Sorum, was published in February 2021 and emphasizes the importance of knowing and understanding students across many platforms in order to teach them powerfully. Melanie’s most recent book, Answers to Your Biggest Questions About Teaching Elementary Writing, is part of Corwin Press’s Five to Thrive Series.
Melanie is also a co-author of Two Writing Teachers, a blog dedicated to the teaching of writing. Additionally, she co-hosts the companion podcast. Melanie’s past conference presentations and additional blogs and articles can be found here.
Melanie holds a BA from Cornell University, an MA in Special Education from the University of Hartford, and a second MA in Educational Leadership from Central Connecticut State University. Melanie also has her Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing through the Solstice MFA Program of Pine Manor College.
Review :
Beginning a career in teaching can be overwhelming—Melanie Meehan answers some of the most common questions writing teachers are tackling with a thoughtful approach for turning research into practice in every elementary classroom and empowering early career educators.
We learn best from each other, and Melanie Meehan does a phenomenal job of emphasizing how writers of all ages grow and learn from constructive criticism, feedback, and thoughtful responders. This is how we learn the importance of a growth mindset and learning how to make connections to our communities and the world around us. Teachers of all years and walks of life will walk away empowered and ready to grow their students across the curriculum.
New teachers or new-to-workshop teachers will hugely benefit from this text. It gives a high-level overview of strong teaching practices—each supported with examples — and it gives a strong foundation for building a practice that’s responsive to students’ growth and learning while also being instructionally strong.
Melanie Meehan masterfully weaves together relevant research, classroom examples, and her own experience as a writing mentor, coach, and teacher to paint a picture of the teaching of writing with students at the center. This is the book I wish I had as a new teacher and one I will turn to again and again in mentoring teachers who are new to writing or who want to develop a more meaningful writing instructional practice in their classrooms.
In this not-to-be-missed guide to all-things-writing-workshop, Melanie Meehan thoughtfully shares ideas for creating a classroom community, what to teach writers, different methods of instruction, how to use assessment to move students forward, and ways to help students develop agency as writers and learners. Answers to Your Biggest Questions About Teaching Elementary Writing is a book teachers will turn to again and again for guidance, wisdom, tips, tools, and strategies for helping students develop as writers.
Melanie Meehan emphasizes that building a supportive community of writers starts with teachers who write, as this creates a more responsive and reflective teacher who is ready to support a variety of writing needs. Answers to Your Biggest Questions About Teaching Elementary Writing will leave teachers feeling like they are writers. In turn, the students in front of them will share in honoring, reflecting, and cherishing their identity as writers, too.
Answers to Your Biggest Questions About Teaching Elementary Writing is not a book about finding what is wrong in student writing and correcting it; this is a book about using every avenue possible—whole group instruction, small group instruction, partner work, charts, thoughtful language (to name just a few!)—to discover all that students know and are able to do, and to invite them into co-crafting the instruction that matches their goals and their aspirations. Not satisfied with dreaming about the kind of writing instruction every child deserves, Melanie Meehan has written the book that maps out how to become a writing teacher worthy of the children we are privileged to teach.
