The Writing Revolution 2.0: A Guide to Advancing Thinking Through Writing in All Subjects and Grades

by Judith C. Hochman, Natalie Wexler

The Writing Revolution 2.0: A Guide to Advancing Thinking Through Writing in All Subjects and Grades. Seller is not affiliated with Wiley and Wiley has not endorsed the spiraling of this book.

Genres: Education, Teaching, Nonfiction, Writing

384 pages, Paperback

Published July 3, 2024

Reviews

[Natalie Shear · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think there is a lot of great information here. I like to summarize what I read.

1. Start at the sentence level.

2. Use the sentence level to build comprehension about reading.
a. Using 3 facts about the story to make or finish a sentence.
b. rewriting a sentence about a story to either expand it or correct the grammar.
c. Have students say what they want to write before writing it. (sentence level).

3. Use comprehension questions to help build a paragraph.
- main idea/summarizing
- It includes some great formats to do this.

There's a lot more to it but I'm gonna need to reread it and reference it as I teach to get it.

Overall, I felt the book gave me a system to start teaching my students to write. I will reference and use a lot of the organizers this year. Or at least that is my plan.

[Tanoi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think every educator K through 12 should read this. I can't stand how fast curriculum is turned over for the "newest, greatest thing," but this will be what revolutionizes everything without a fancy price tag. I have yet to meet a teacher who has read this and didn't completely rethink how to teach from then on out.

[George Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t know where to begin… Literally… As an ML teacher, this book provided so many good strategies. Districts, elementary districts AND all grade level districts should be reading this.

It’s very much reminding me of, passing the buck… we assume something is happening or know, but most likely, it is not. Therefore, true writing never gets taught because things get passed from one grade to another.

[Colleen Rein · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is fine as the bones of a writing program, but definitely don’t look here if you are looking to be inspired about teaching writing. It is a decent reference book for formula based writing, and would make a good tool to help kids with particular issues.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book and learning about new writing strategies! It was not a boring PD book, which always makes a teacher happy 🙂

[Sally · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing! I’m obsessed. I wish this was published many decades ago, taught in schools/colleges, and practiced by all content teachers grades 3-12.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good resource for improving writing instruction.

[Adayla · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read along with an online book club and enjoyed the community as we went through this.

There are a few activites that I can see would be beneficial to incorporate, yet not essential. Overall, the strategies do not align with my goals in our homeschool and I will not be using this very much.

I would summarize much of this book to be just a different way of presenting comprehension questions. If you have decided not to incorporate those in your teaching, I don't see this manual as being extremely helpful to you.

[Justus · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one is a bit tricky to review. The theory/philosophy/idea? Five stars, there's a reason this is famous.

The basic idea is that students need explicit instruction on how to to write, especially the kind of expository stuff that is the bread and butter of both academics and the workforce. By explicit instruction the authors mean things like sentence expansion where you start with a kernel "she made a mistake" and then guide students to expand it by adding a who, what, where, when, and/or why type elements.

Likewise, their because-but-so exercise to practice conjunctions and increase sentence complexity, where you give a sentence stem such as "Seeds need light to grow" and then prompt them to complete it in three different ways:


Seeds need light to grow because _____.
Seeds need light to grow, but ____.
Seeds need light to grow, so ____.


This strong focus on sentence formation before moving on to longer compositions is fantastic.

The authors also spend a lot of time talking about managing cognitive load for students -- writing is among the most cognitively demanding tasks we ask of students, especially when they are still in elementary school and mere letter formation and spelling are not yet automatic.

So why only three stars?

I can't help but feel there's stuff missing on how to actually implement all of this. To some extent that's because the authors have tried to address K-12, almost an impossible range. To some extent it is because the entire point of The Writing Revolution is that you need to embed this in your existing curriculum, not make it some standalone "composition curriculum". So when you are doing history, you should be doing some Writing Revolution exercises. When you're doing science, you should be doing some Writing Revolution exercises.

This dissatisfaction built for me -- "how do you actually implement all of this stuff? -- unless finally, at the very end, we're given "Pacing the Strategies", "Sequence of Activities through the Grades", and "Pacing Guides". All of which felt under-baked.

"Pacing the Strategies" just says, sorry, we can't answer that, you're need to rely on your own judgment.

When deciding how long to spend on any one TWR strategy or activity, you have to exercise your own judgment about your students' oral and written language abilities. Among the factors to consider are the following:

Performance on beginning‐ and middle‐of‐year assessments
The grade level at which they were introduced to TWR strategies
Their familiarity with the conventions of English grammar
Their sense of what they need to include, omit, or revise in their writing so that it's understandable to a reader

That's pretty thin!

The "Sequence of Activities through the Grades" is similarly thin. The entire K-12 sequence is 10 pages. So clearly we're not getting anything approaching a detailed scope & sequence here.

And for "Pacing Guidelines" they just provide a link to their website.

All of this feels like a pretty heavy lift. Educators are given a framework, which is great, but turning that into something to use in classroom on a daily basis is almost entirely up to them once they understand a half dozen tools like sentence expansion and sentence combining. What we really need is for the curriculums to build all of this in themselves. So this book fills an awkward spot for me where it feels like the real target audience should be the people who are writing curriculums -- which shouldn't be regular classroom teachers! For instance, see Doug Lemov's comments in Teach Like A Champion 3.0 that by not having to do lesson planning teacher's have time freed up to do lesson preparation.

Contrast this to something like Killgallon's "Sentence Composing" series of workbooks, which takes a similar approach of direct instruction at the level of sentences. They are not "embedded in the curriculum" in the way that The Writing Revolution advocates. But they feel a lot closer to being usable without making "Curriculum Designer" your additional, unpaid, nighttime job.

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the original version just before starting as a 5/6 ELA teacher and noted that I must incorporate these ideas into my teaching. I mostly didn't - maybe some appositive work here and a because/but/so there... but when I saw the lower school reading specialist with a copy of the new version, we started talking about the philosophy and how awesome it seemed, and how our kids could really benefit from its use.

That led to a 5-person summer book club spanning grades 1-8 and including MS math & science teachers, which led to pre-service PD sessions... which hopefully will lead to widespread adopting of this pedagogy!

[Tandava Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is really great. “Thinking through writing” is exactly what I’ve been wanting to focus on more, and this gives a lot of good options to do that while at the same time building up general writing skills. The suggested integration across subjects feels like it will be more work for me, because of coordinating with other teachers, but also makes complete sense and should benefit everybody all around. I’m planning on using this a lot next year, and recommending it to the other teachers at my school.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this as part of a professional book study at work. This text, which is aligned with the Science of Writing, is an excellent piece for educators of all grades as we reconsider what we know about how to teach reading and writing. It is a challenge to revise our thinking about the patterns and processes we used to use to teach writing, but it is necessary in order to create stronger thinkers, readers, and writers.

[James Bailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just finished The Writing Revolution 2.0 and wow… this book makes so much sense. I love how the Hochman Method centers everything on strong sentences, explicit instruction, and writing that is deeply connected to content. It’s been so encouraging to see so many of these practices already showing up in our CKLA planning. Even the small daily mini-lessons are making a real difference for students. This is one of those books that immediately changes how you look at teaching writing. 📚✏️

[Lindsay Bembenek · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book presents a method of writing instruction for Grades K-12 that begins with sentence level activities and advances all the way to multiple paragraph compositions. A constant reminder throughout the book is that it is the content that drives the rigor of writing instruction regardless of a student’s age, grade or ability level.

[Brit · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m giving it 5 stars because it’s the most comprehensive writing guide I’ve ever read. There are lots of great strategies for primarily 3-12, but K-2 are mentioned as well. I would have liked more explicit examples by grade level and more rubrics. Overall, this was a beneficial read! (And I feel like I should’ve used an appositive and SPO to write this.)

[Kimberly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is the best resource my district has provided ELA teachers hands down. Good teaching strategies should always trump packaged curriculum. Public school teachers have had so much agency taken away, it feels refreshing to not only be granted permission, but encouraged to do what's best for students. I've actually been reinvigorated and excited to teach again.

[Maddi Spletter · Rating 4 out of 5]

In terms of a book I had to read for PD it is pretty good. There are examples for every subject along with worksheets that outline each activity plus examples for every level of student. It is great to help you figure out how to teach writing, especially for those of us in other subjects.

[Vicki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book for those asking where to begin explicit writing instruction. The provided examples for each stage and strategy of writing are very helpful. This will continue to be a go-to resource in my elementary classroom.

[April · Rating 5 out of 5]

Using this as our writing curriculum for this school year and I know I will use it for years to come! It is solid writing curriculum that teaches how to explicitly teach children how to write, no matter what grade they are in!

[Dominique Neumann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! I followed a book study with it. It gives so many strategies- not just for writing but also for reading comprehension, content, the list goes on. I have loved all the templates offered and am excited to implement this into my classroom.

[Jean Schram · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really solid stuff here that will help kids write and think well. For those of us who use IEW, this is like IEW-lite. I will be using this books “because-but-so” strategy together with IEWs KWO strategy.

[Melynda · Rating 5 out of 5]

📖 A practical approach to interweaving writing instruction across all content areas.

[Libby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic resource! I highly recommend for all educators!

[Ellen Riggenbach · Rating 5 out of 5]

Game changer! Learning so much and can’t wait to put it into practice.

[Liz Pearson · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars. This will be a game changer when it comes to teaching writing instruction.

[Alisa June · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here’s one of my yearly reads that has to do with teaching. This one is pretty good. I’m gonna follow this structure this year to teach my kids how to write.

[Sky Pelham · Rating 4 out of 5]

So many great tools in here! Already working some with my kids and they make a huge difference

[Cathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very helpful and practical. I have some ideas I can use right away!

[Cody · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for grad school. Has a lot of good ideas but wish there was more "meat" to what was in the book, especially for the higher grades.

[Carrie Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are lots of great ideas for classroom use in this book. It is NOT a program, but ideas that could be added to an existing curriculum or writing schedule.