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

by Judith C. Hochman, Natalie Wexler, Doug Lemov (Foreword)

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

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.

Genres: Education, Teaching, Nonfiction, Writing, Professional Development, School, Reference

294 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 27, 2017

Reviews

[Ken · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I received this book and saw that the foreword was written by Doug Lemov (author of Teach Like a Champion), it gave me pause. Uh-oh, I thought. Another one of those militaristic, formulaic how-to books on teaching.

Turns out, yes and no. Yes to the formulas and no to the militaristic excess. To her credit, author Judith C. Hochman all but acknowledges her writing formulas as training wheels that can and should come off as soon as a student learns to swim in the Sea of Syntax. All good. And in truth, as a believer in shopping the Great Bazaar of Teaching Ideas, plucking ideas here and there, modifying them, and proceeding full speed ahead, I've concluded that this book will be useful to me.

Is it a repudiation of the School of Let Them Free-write Every Day and They'll Become Better Writers" Teaching? Ah, yes. How about St. Nancie of Atwell's "turn 'em loose and let 'em write with teacher guidance and exemplars" workshop methods? A bit, as Hochman argues that kids need to be shown HOW to write essays before we throw such assignments as descriptive pieces memoir pieces, compare & contrast pieces, and opinion pieces their way.

What really resonates? She advocates the sentence as a start. As a teacher of 8th graders, I can attest to the fact that some students are still struggling with this basic foundational piece of compositional skills, and we do them little good when we "assume" they were taught such basics in earlier grades and refuse to sacrifice our precious curriculum demands by pulling back and giving them concrete ideas on how to create more sophisticated sentences.

The operative word here is concrete. That's the deal with formulas, no? Hochman provides all manner of sequential concrete activities to help forsaken writers work their way up to a higher level. Some examples:

Sentence expansion through the application of question words (who, what, when, where, why, and how)

Use of subordinating conjunctions (she uses because, but, and so, but I would throw them all at high middle and high school students)

Use of appositives and appositive phrases

Combining sentences (proven effective again and again by researchers)

Revising unelaborated paragraphs (Hochman's system counts revision and planning as the two most important steps to successful essays)

Using formulas for single paragraph writing

Using formulas for multiple paragraph writing

You can sniff at the whole idea of reading formulaic essays after a year of this, but the alternative might be the Purgatory of lost writers producing fragments, run-ons, and essays that have no sense of purpose or coherency. If you steel yourself and see this as a necessary evil en route to the promised land of "training-wheel removal," your perspective may change.

Fact is, with the exception of a few gifted students, most of our kids see writing as complex and mind-boggling stuff that is beyond their abilities. For them, concrete, formulaic strategies will look a lot like a life-saving devices tossed into the roiling waters. They will be something to grasp on to and, with the tug of the saving lifeguard at the other end, will begin to feel some sense of relief and confidence.

Meaning: Yeah, I find a lot of these strategies worth a go, though I won't throw out all my St. Nancie of Atwell ideas with the bathwater. Rather, I'll look for ways to use one (Hochman) to enhance the other (Atwell).

Nota Bene: All activities are divided by examples for "Level 1" students (mostly elementary) and "Level 2" ones (high middle and high school). If your district adopted the TWR method, middle and high school teachers would be at a training-wheel-removal advantage. If not, the system can be used anyway. Just know that you don't sequentially leave behind strategies as you go--you keep practicing them all. Thus, once you're into multiple-paragraph writing territory, you're wise to continue sentence-writing drills. All good teaching circles 'round, after all.

[Kim Clifton · Rating 4 out of 5]

With a title that proclaims this method a "revolution," I was a bit concerned that it would show me that everything I've learned and taught is wrong. The good news is it's not. There's a huge emphasis on sentence expanding and combining, and a lot of outlines for paragraphs and essays. Pretty standard.

The revolutionary part is that writing instruction happens at all levels (sentence to paragraph), at all grades, and in all subjects. Usually the writing-across-content-areas ideas I hear for science and especially math sound forced-- no one wants, or needs, to write an essay on fractions. But, what if math just focused on writing at the sentence level? I loved the example conjunction practice:
Fractions are like decimals because...
Fractions are like decimals, so...
Fractions are like decimals, but...
Substitute this with any claim and you have a grammar-integrated comprehension check. That's brilliant.

I also like how much emphasis the authors put on differentiation- every activity is illustrated for students at two levels, and there's usually a side box with more ideas for scaling up or down. Overall, I think I'll be referencing this a lot :)

[Kristi Hovington · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
I read this to help brush up my domain knowledge as I’m teaching a creative writing class this term. This book is helpful for that purpose and has some interesting ideas on teaching writing from a more technical level, which is not what I’m teaching, but has been beneficial nonetheless.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every teacher should read this book! Some of the best writing CPD I've ever had. Range of this book is from classroom practice to whole curriculum design - something for everyone.

[Tonia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been working my way through this book one chapter a day. It's based on the Hochman method and explains how to systematically and explicitly improve students' writing starting at the sentence level (teaching students how to identify sentence fragments, expand sentences using appositives and combine sentences) and moving onto paragraphs and then full texts. The focus is on writing non-fiction texts based on content students are already studying such as their science or history unit. The book covers note-taking, summarising and revising and editing skills. Paragraphs include a topic sentence, supporting details and an optional concluding sentences (rather than the TEEL or PEEL structure). I think this is easier than trying to explain what the Es stand for, and whether Evidence comes before or after Evaluation or Explanation. The method includes a number of planning scaffolds. These and other resources are available to download from the book's website. Although the book includes exercises from Grade 1 through to high school, it would probably be most useful for teaching Grade 3 and up. That said, the focus on expanding sentences and other aspects of the method look like a good fit with the writing section of the new NSW K-2 draft English syllabus.

[Melinda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not only does this book provide great ideas, it also provides resources, graphic organizers, and a scope and sequence for embedding the writing exercises into existing curriculum. Elementary-12

[Katie Proctor · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is fantastic.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

BRB, changing Year 7 and 8 English curriculum right now.

[Morgan Strabo · Rating 5 out of 5]

good stuff

[Mundy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid, practical text, good for supplementation. The Hochman method came about some 25 years ago. A bit hyperbolic to call it a Revolution, yes?

[Abigail H. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t usually enjoy reading “education” books as much as I enjoyed this one. It really pinpoints one section of the crisis of American education today. Early in the book, the authors say this: “…when teachers assigned compositions, they assumed that students would intuitively know how to sequence and organise information, relate it to a reader with clarity and coherence, and develop sound introductions and conclusions.” While the specifics of this statement are bright here nor there, it’s that first part…the ASSUMING…that backs educators into corners so often. I’m excited to go into this next school year and try to feel comfortable with getting back to basics, especially when it comes to writing. Students cannot produce work that looks like XYZ if they do not have the skills for ABC. And unfortunately, right now…they don’t.

[Alyson Stone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book: The Writing Revolution

Author: Judith C. Hochman and Natalie Wexler

Rating: 4 Out of 5 Stars



This is a PD book I have to read to renewal my teaching certification. Usually, these kinds of books can go either way for me. A lot of times I feel that teaching books are written by people who have never been in the classroom, teach at schools with a lot of resources, or by people who have been out of the classroom for so long that they don’t remember what it’s really like. I didn’t get that with this book. I felt that everything the authors mentioned in this book is really easy to add to the classroom and can be done so in a way that does not require you adding really all that much to your lessons.



I teach history and science. What I really liked about this book was that it gave ideas on how to add writing to all subject areas. It also points that whenever students write, it needs to go along with whatever you are teaching. For example, in my own science classes, we respond to a writing prompt every chapter. Right now, my fifth graders are studying the body and its systems. They are getting ready to do a writing prompt on how these systems work together and what would happen if one of these systems stopped working. They are given a rubric, as well as ideas on how to start the prompt. The Writing Revolution points out that you can’t just give students a prompt, especially ones who are still working on mastering writing a paragraph that flows. You have to offer clear instruction on how to write a solid paragraph. This is where my fifth graders are. Yes, it does add a little bit more of instruction, but the results are worth it. I did the same thing with my sixth graders last year and their writing has greatly improved. They have gone from writing a single sentence to writing paragraphs with complex sentences. As a matter of fact, the last writing prompt the sixth grade answered, they did not need any direct instruction and were a lot more confident in their writing.



The book points out that when students are learning to write that it just doesn’t happen overnight. They need direct instruction that is tailored to their needs, which I agree with. Just based on what I have seen in the classroom, you have to match what you are teaching to the type of students who are in your classroom. My seventh and eighth students are in a mixed class-this means that I have both seventh and eighth graders at the same time. This can make it really difficult when it comes to instruction. With writing, my eighth-grade students do not, for the most part, need as much direct instruction. They would be more of what the book refers to as “Level 2” writers. Now, my seventh graders, do need a lot of support and direct instruction when it comes to writing. This does require me pulling my weaker writers aside and offering them instruction while having my stronger writers work independently on skills they have already mastered. It does create a little bit more work on my part, but the payoff is worth it. All I have to do is look at writing samples from last year and compare them to this year to see that.



To me, if you do want your students to have success at writing, you have to be willing to take the time to provide instruction to them. It does take a lot of time and effort in the beginning. However, as time has gone on, I do find that the amount of time you spend on the actual instruction does go down. Students do reach a point at which they are able to write without you always having to check their every step. As time does go on, you do see them start to become more independent and you do see them grow. It just takes time and baby steps. You just have to be willing to know and understand that this is doing to be yearlong process and is going to be something that is ongoing.

[Rebekah · Rating 5 out of 5]

These strategies would be easy to incorporate in any class. The majority of my students cannot write a sentence, so these strategies seem like they may help kids grasp writing at the sentence level. I plan to incorporate these strategies as mini-lessons and daily bell ringers next year and see how it goes!

[Kristin Tabb · Rating 5 out of 5]

I generally would raise my eyebrows that any one writing approach could be considered “revolutionary”, but after reading this, I think it incorporates so many key principles that have proven fruitful for producing strong writers that the title is not an overstatement. The principles and methodology seem to have grasped what so many writing programs ignore: writing is simply thinking articulately, on the page instead of out loud. It acknowledges the differences between writing and speaking, roots writing in the articulation of logical relationships between ideas, and embeds writing in content in every class rather than treating it as a separate discipline. Methodologically, the curriculum teaches writing skills (always in the context of content in any subject) incrementally, breaking the writing task down into sentence-building, before moving onto to paragraph planning and building, and then compositions. TWR nuances skills for the various types of writing students should be able to master before graduating from high school, and provides a wealth of (free) templates, assessments, assignments, pacing schedules for grades 1-12, and a comprehensive, cumulative list of skills, sequenced to build appropriate scaffolding. By focusing on construction rather than deconstruction/analysis (though analysis and modeling are both included as part of the scaffolding), students make forward progress in writing performance while maintaining a sense of ownership and authorship over their work. There are many ideas included for differentiation as well, making this curriculum easy to implement (and TWR is a non-profit, so its resources are available for free.) This incremental, sequences, thoughtful, common-sense approach to writing has made it noteable as the source of success for multiple New York high schools, and the Atlantic Monthly has featured it twice in the past several years as a way forward to solve American education’s writing crisis. I can see why.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a lot of great stuff here re: thinking about sentence-level, paragraph-level, and composition-level writing as a thinking process. My main qualm or question with this book is: to what extent do we want to prescribe the structures of essays and paragraphs? I think this is certainly a useful tool to the extent that it teaches a traditional style of writing for American schools, but I would simply question the value we place on this one style of writing.

[Rose Peterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first thought when I picked up this book was, "This is the complete opposite of how I was taught to teach writing." My second thought--quieter, reluctant--was, "And the way I was taught isn't working."

TWI demystifies what can often be an amorphous writing process, based on what "feels" right, leaving many students in the dark. It presents ideas of how to teach writing from a skills perspective, from the sentence fragment level up.

I did take away some useful things:
- using dotted lines to indicate planning/notes and solid lines to signal drafting
- how to embed writing instruction into other content areas (and the necessity of it, as it boosts rigor)
- sentence activities
- reminder that outlines reduce cognitive load
- GST introduction-writing strategy

I had frustrations, though, too. After the opening chapter on sentences, much of the information felt like things teachers already know but struggle to teach, and TWR didn't give ideas for how to actually present the content to students--which, for me, is the struggle of teaching. For example, the authors write, "Introduce each of these steps by guiding discussion and then model the strategies and activities--in a way that students can observe--and provide feedback," but don't give creative, engaging suggestions of how to do that.

I was lucky to have read someone else's review prior to beginning the book that advised the activities were not clearly marked, so I made it a point to star all activities in the margins for easy future reference.

In general, I'm skeptical of the single-minded focus on college readiness and formulaic writing instead of authentic, lifelong writing. And, I'm still struggling with the idea that all writing must be planned and calculated from the outset...but the bottom line is that most of my students aren't writing at all, and I need to figure out what to do about that. Maybe TWR has some solutions.

[Wouter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was not for me, an ESL teacher at a secondary school. While reading I rated the book at three stars, but looking at the amount of snippets I took from the book to use in my own writing reader and classes, I must admit its value might be more to four stars.

The main problem with The Writing Revolution is that it is not for the single (foreign) language teacher. Actually, it is meant more (but not only!) for non-language teachers to incorporate writing in their classes.

The book is mainly (and repetitively) about "but, because & so", "subordinate conjunctions", "SPO (Single Paragraph Outline)", "MPO (Multi-paragraph Outline)" and "appositives". Yes, thesis statements and topic sentences are also discussed, but at a basic level.

What I liked about the book was the approach of having two groups of students: elementary (level 1) and secondary (level 2). However, there also lies a problem: it gets too broad and for me many pages were not useless, but not very practical.

If you are an individual (language) teacher I would recommend this book as an additional read. If your school is looking for a new approach for writing which includes non-language subjects, this would be a good start.

[Ted · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read Kim Clifton's review. It captures my thoughts perfectly.

As a middle school modern language teacher, I plan on implementing the TWR model into teaching vocabulary, grammar, sentence fluency and writing proficiency. Some highlights from the L2 perspective:

*Deliberate writing practice can happen at any level on any topic, starting with what the author calls a "sentence kernel," all the way up to a multi-paragraph essay.

*Teaching conjunctions early (they are usually buried in language textbooks several chapters in) give kids dexterity as they construct meaningful sentences--because, but, so seems like a fantastic way to start Spanish students on sentence expansion.

*Writing practice can take the form of an oral activity. Great for language teachers!

*Outline preparation is a great scaffolding technique for reinforcing L2 vocabulary

*Differentiation is easy and generates countless comprehension and production activities, all in the service of writing a sentence or a paragraph. It's an activity that creates other activities.

[BB 9 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even as a teacher of upper high school students,
I found the parts of the book that dealt with sentence level instruction most useful.

The rest of the book did not deliver on the implicit promise in the title. I have come to see the five paragraph essay as a useful tool in writing instruction that helps teach students logic and structure, but not the end goal for most of our secondary students. So, I can’t help but feel like this book was missing chapters at the end that start to complicate or push beyond the formulas they’ve introduced. They acknowledge that some of their strategies are training wheels, but do little to suggest how to start removing those training wheels.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not in a position to implement TWR curriculum wholesale, but I love the approach of including quick writing mechanics activities into content area classes. I also appreciate the emphasis on working at the sentence level, teaching note taking explicitly and supporting the planning process for writing. All of these writing activities can be easily used tomorrow to support struggling readers.

The layout and organization of the book is not perfect. I started making lists of activities because they’re not clearly labeled in the body of the text. There are pacing guides available online which list activities in recommended sequence.

[Holly Mueller · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this professional text after attending a session that used some of the activities in the book. I was intrigued. I also serve a district who is using it for writing instruction at the elementary level. While I liked the structures Hochman and Wexler gives teachers and students to build their writing skills from the sentence up, the book lacked some of the artistry and passion educators like Penny Kittle, Kelly Gallagher, Ralph Fletcher, Linda Rief, Jennifer Serravallo etc. include in their writing instruction and pedagogy. However, I could see using TWR techniques as part of a larger writing workshop philosophy. I'd like to see how it pairs with Jeff Anderson's Talking Through Sentences and Beyond.

[Marissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

As all education instruction books are this book was extremely repetitive for what was necessary. It was ironic that the repetition focused on the need to teach student to learn to be concise with their writing in summarizing.

However there are many great techniques that can be folded into any class room. Plus the supplemental sheets and copiable handouts will be great to return to in my own classroom planning.

[Josetta · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is transformative! As a MS and HS science teacher, I've always tried to incorporate writing into my courses. However, I've always felt like I could use more instruction and support on how to do that. This book is a game-changer! It gives clear examples and teaches you to start small. I LOVE this! I'm really looking forward to collaborating with the rest of my grade-level team so we can be consistent as we all incorporate writing into our non-LA classes.

[Parker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can not recommend this book enough! It’s practical and accessible mixed with the right amount of theory and research. This is relevant for upper elementary all the way to high school and for every subject. If you recognize the value of writing and want to give your students the knowledge and practice to do it well, this is absolutely the book for you. I can’t wait to see how it impacts my students’ writing this year.

[Mira Prater · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is really instructional for non English teachers or any teacher who doesn’t provide a lot of writing instruction. I can’t say I learned anything new, but it was nice to see validation about what I already do in room 213.

[Cheri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this explicit instruction for teaching writing. Yes, it may seem like we are teaching students to use a formula, but as you look through examples, you see it can change. I love the writing portfolio for the year and that all of the resources are provided.

[Maureen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really eye-opening look at writing instruction - makes me wish we had a content-based curriculum!

[Misti · Rating 5 out of 5]

No joke- an actual path for writing instruction inside a Common Core ELA classroom with differentiated activities shaped to your existing reading curriculum ready to go.

[Cassandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 this had some great ideas that seem relatively simple to implement. I’m going to try a couple- ask me at the end of next year how it went 😊

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Any leadership at a school hoping to implement a full-fledged, relevant, workable, and systematic writing across the curriculum program needs to read this book!