Teach Writing Well: How to Assess Writing, Invigorate Instruction, and Rethink Revision, April/2018

Any successful writer will tell you that the key to writing well is revision. Any elementary school teacher will tell you that the real challenge of writing instruction is teaching kids how to revise. Ruth Culham is both a successful writer and a writing teacher, and she’s discovered how to teach writing and revision in a way that’s accessible to both teacher and students: First read the writing, assess it using the traits of writing, then teach the writers and guide revision decisions using traits as a common language and map.

This book shows you how to assess and teach writing in a way that’s practical and doable—and best of all, see results.

Part 1 walks you through the traits of writing and their key qualities, showing step by step how to read students’ writing and offer feedback that nudges them forward through the revision process. Chapters will help you address challenges students face within each mode of writing (narrative, expository, persuasive), and provide tools young writers can use to evaluate their own writing and make revision decisions accordingly.

Part 2 dives into instruction, offering specific guidance for how to use what you’ve learned from reading student writing to design lessons that scaffold students toward making their own craft decisions and revisions. In addition, there’s an entire chapter devoted to mentor texts that you can use to model traits and key qualities for your students.

Traits-based revision lies at the heart of this book, as it’s been at the heart of Ruth’s career in writing instruction. Rethinking revision is what will ultimately help you to teach writing well.

About the Author:

Ruth Culham, EdD, launched a writing revolution with the publication of her book 6+1 Traits of Writing: The Complete Guide, Grades 3 and Up, followed by 6+1 Traits of Writing: The Complete Guide for the Primary Grades and Traits of Writing: The Complete Guide for Middle School, winner of the 2011 Teacher’s Choice award. Her groundbreaking work with the writing traits is the culmination of 40 years of research, practice, and passion. Ruth has published the bestselling The Writing Thief: Using Mentor Texts to Teach the Craft of Writing that demonstrates how to read with a writer’s eye to lift the best writing techniques from favorite authors. Ruth has also penned Dream Wakers: Mentor Texts That Celebrate Latino Culture to support the reading and writing relationship using high-quality diverse texts. Ruth’s professional books have illuminated both writing traits and the reading-writing connection for countless educators around the globe.

Her many professional resources include the immensely popular, grade-specific Trait Crates that use beautiful children’s literature titles to spotlight and teach each writing trait and drive home the reading-writing connection. Ruth’s ground-breaking Teach Writing Well, her newest and most thorough professional text, enhances teachers’ professional understanding of teaching writing by unlocking the secrets of revision in its two-part approach: read the writing and teach the writer.

Ruth is a contributor to The Reading Teacher and Educational Leadership. She travels extensively delivering highly energetic and well-received workshops and keynotes. Ruth was an English Teacher of the Year in Montana, one of the highlights of her 19-year teaching career. Culham holds specialty degrees in Library Science and Elementary, Middle, and Secondary English Education.