The Write Thing: Kwame Alexander Engages Students in Writing Workshop

by Kwame Alexander

Imagine having a Newbery Medal-winning author in your classroom as an advisor and a friend, providing personal and practical advice on how to teach writing workshop in the modern-day classroom. With The Write Thing, you can do just that! Kwame Alexander is the New York Times-bestselling author of The Crossover. With more than 10 years of experience conducting writing workshops in schools, Alexander shows how to shake up the ""traditional"" writing workshop and make writing fun again! His magnetic personality, infectious enthusiasm, and love of teaching come through to inspire all students to write. The Write Thing teaches you how to move students step-by-step from ideas, to drafts, to finished works. Not only will you successfully motivate your students to write, you'll take that motivation one step further by providing guidance on how to create student-driven publications of their work. The confidence students will attain when they see their writing authentically published will be off the charts! The book has three Writing, Publishing, and Presenting. Other exciting features include KwameTime! videos that bring Alexander into the classroom. Kwame's QuickTips feature easy-to-implement ideas that have worked for Alexander. With teacher success stories and the most helpful appendix ever written, this essential resource will teach you how to tailor writing workshop to meet the particular needs of your students.

Genres: Teaching, Writing, Nonfiction, Poetry, Education

208 pages, Perfect Paperback

Published July 2, 2018

About the author

Kwame Alexander is a poet, educator, and New York Times Bestselling author of 21 books, including The Crossover, which received the 2015 John Newbery Medal for the Most Distinguished Contribution to American literature for Children, the Coretta Scott King Author Award Honor, The NCTE Charlotte Huck Honor, the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, and the Passaic Poetry Prize. Kwame writes for children of all ages. His other works include Surf's Up, a picture book; Booked, a middle grade novel; and He Said She Said, a YA novel.

Kwame believes that poetry can change the world, and he uses it to inspire and empower young people through his PAGE TO STAGE Writing and Publishing Program released by Scholastic. A regular speaker at colleges and conferences in the U.S., he also travels the world planting seeds of literary love (Singapore, Brazil, Italy, France, Shanghai, etc.). Recently, Alexander led a delegation of 20 writers and activists to Ghana, where they delivered books, built a library, and provided literacy professional development to 300 teachers, as a part of LEAP for Ghana, an International literacy program he co-founded.

Reviews

[Brian Kinsella · Rating 3 out of 5]

First, for the example lessons and the resources given, this book is well worth the price. Getting to look at how and why Kwame Alexander centers poetry in his workshop process is also really interesting. For me, though, there wasn't really enough talk about the workshop process. It was more of an overview with results than a discussion of the nuts and bolts. That said, the final two chapters (publishing and presenting student work) really showed many different ways to celebrate rate our students accomplishments, and I really appreciated that. Overall, a good buy.

[Enthusiastic Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is for a POETRY workshop. Unfortunately, that's not clear from the front cover, nor from the summary. It is also definitely aimed at elementary and middle school teachers; I think it could work at the high school level, but it wasn't what I was looking for. For what it is, though, it's done very well.

[Julianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Way better plan for writing instruction than Benchmark Advance 🤣 Teaches kids to find their voice & purpose for writing instead of writing for compliance & treating.

Bravo Kwame

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a middle school creative writing teacher, I'm always looking for ways to inspire writers. Kwame's book has breathed new life into how I'm conducting the course, mostly because of his emphasis on publishing. Now instead of having the writers just submit their work to me, I'm working up creative ways for them to publish or present. It has already made the class more meaningful in my estimation. This book contains tons of info in a slim volume, and has videos to watch as well. I will be mining its gold for a long time to come.

[Christine Turner]

Adult Non-fiction: 808.1 Ale

With more than 10 years of experience conducting writing workshops in schools, Alexander shows how to shake up the "traditional" writing workshop and make writing fun again! His magnetic personality, infectious enthusiasm, and love of teaching come through to inspire all students to write. The Write Thing teaches you how to move students step-by-step from ideas, to drafts, to finished works. Not only will you successfully motivate your students to write, you'll take that motivation one step further by providing guidance on how to create student-driven publications of their work.

The book has three parts: Writing, Publishing, and Presenting. The Writing section features Lessons in Action that teach students to produce writing that is worthy of being published. With a focus on poetry, Alexander's writing workshop uniquely meets the needs of reluctant writers. The Publishing section focuses on how to prepare and print digital and physical copies of students' work.

The Presenting section provides suggestions to help students confidently present their poetry and other written pieces. Other exciting features include Kwame Time! videos for both teachers and students that bring Alexander into the classroom. Kwame's Quick Tips feature easy-to-implement ideas that have worked for Alexander.

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[Kristina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I purchased this book a year ago with the intent to read and try some things out in my classroom this year. Life got busy and I didn't get to it, until now - and wow, do I regret it! I was surprised that the focus is primarily on poetry and almost put the book down at first. However, the author does such a fantastic way of showing how poetry addresses so many of the writing features that my students need and gave practical application for creating real opportunities for reading, studying, writing, and publishing. I marked this book up with all sorts of stickies that I intend to put into practice this next year! This book really strives - and succeeds -to change the mindset of teachers around poetry workshop. I highly recommend this book to teachers regardless of grade level!

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m so happy I selected this text for my spring Language Arts class. It really resonated with my preservice teacher students and I think it will encourage them to see themselves as teachers of writing while actually giving them the tools to do so!


It was nice to revisit this book after the semester was complete. I was one chapter shy (the unassigned chapter) from behind finished with this book.

[Sophie Romero · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book for one of my college classes, and I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did. I have never liked poetry since I was young, but Kwame Alexander's tips on how to engage students in writing poetry helped me shift my view and think of ways it can be enjoyable to me both personally and as a teacher. He provides a lot of useful tips for other genres of writing as well and I am excited to bring these ideas into my future classroom.

[Tracy Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great ideas using poetry to engage students in writing. Sure, I have students write poetry. Yes, I have my students write narratives. And yes it can be a real challenge for some of them. Kwame makes great points by sharing his rationale for using poetry as the main means to teach writing. I plan to give his suggestions a go and I hope my students writing lives flourish because of it.

[Sheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

This guy could write a grocery list and I would love it. He’s just that good. Fresh and engaging ideas, tons of resources, and great advice for teachers who may not be all that comfortable with teaching poetry. I can’t wait to start our poetry unit and move into incorporating poetry into year-round writing.

[Elaine Bearden · Rating 4 out of 5]

teachers
This goes into a full publishing program. However the most important part to me is the appendix in the back of poetry writing exercises in the back to use with kids. And tips throughout - like write down the poetry that has had the most impact on you and share that with your students and try to write like it. I think this would be worth getting as a reference.

[Melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book that's easy to access. I needed to shake up my approach to poetry and this was helpful. You can download a lot of resources and videos. His videos for students (Kwami Time) were fun and a bit cheesy, but my 6th graders loved them.

[Cathlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic resource full of great ideas! Can't wait to start using it in the classroom.

[Rebecca Plaza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poetry Passion!!! Mr. Alexander is the height of joy for words and has collected lessons and tips to help teachers. He describes how he does it when he comes for a workshop. Love it!

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great resource for taking your students from learning about poetry to publishing their own. I am planning my year long poetry unit now!

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much inspiration here! I'm stealing a lot of great ideas from this one.

[Danielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love how tangible and implementable this book is!!

[Danielle Lentz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the tangible products and easy-to-implement ideas for any type of classroom. I also appreciated how TEACHERS wrote a book on how to help teachers.

[Tia · Rating 5 out of 5]

So applicable with lessons and video examples! I'm definitely incorporating this into my writing class

[Keri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous ideas in this book. I’m such a fan of Kwame’s writing and excitement for getting kids reading and writing. This is definitely a book geared toward teachers, and since I’m not a teacher, I plan to take everything that I loved and apply it to me however I can.