Teaching Adolescent Writers

by Kelly Gallagher

In an increasingly demanding world of literacy, it has become critical that students know how to write effectively. From the requirements of standardized tests to those of the wired workplace, the ability to write well, once a luxury, has become a necessity. Many students are leaving school without the necessary writing practice and skills needed to compete in a complex and fast-moving Information Age. Unless we teach them how to run with it, they are in danger of being run over by a stampede―a literacy stampede. InTeaching Adolescent Writers , Kelly Gallagher shows how students can be taught to write effectively. Gallagher shares a number of classroom-tested strategies that enable teachers Understand the importance of teaching writing and how to motivate young writers Show how modeling from both the teacher and real-world texts builds young writers Provide choice of what to write, which helps elevate adolescent writing, and how to fit it into a rigorous curriculum Help students recognize the importance of purpose and audience Assess essays in ways that drive better writing performance. Infused with humor and illuminating anecdotes, Gallagher draws on his classroom experiences and work as co-director of a regional writing project to offer teachers both practical ways to incorporate writing instruction into their day and compelling reasons to do so.

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

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

http://www.kellygallagher.org/about/a...

Reviews

[Eliza · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally a book that didnt make me roll my eyes and think "Yeah right, like that's going to work with my middle school kids!" I love how the book is written, so simple and straight foward and practical! This is a definite must for all Middle School and High School teachers. And, its a great find just before I transition into High school next year!

[Jenny Mason · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this book is really helpful for teachers of any content area. He gives a lot of important information to consider when trying to get students writing, and writing at a deeper level. Students need to be shown by their teachers how to write in their specific content area. It's not just up to the English teachers to teach students how to write. Each subject area requires a different kind of writing, and teachers need to teach kids how to write for specific purposes in their areas. There are lots of activities in this book as well. I am conducting a book study in my school with it, and there are different content area teachers involved: Science, Art, Social Studies, Math, Band, Consumer Science, Reading, and English. It's going pretty well and I would recommend it to all.

[Joel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm certainly not one to read teaching books all the time, but I enjoyed a lot of what Gallagher had to say. Like any teaching guidebook, there are a mix of good usable ideas, ideas that don't fit my style or capture my interests, and ideas that would be great in a perfect world, but there are enough of the first type that I felt very encouraged and energized with new ideas to implement in my teaching. I was especially glad to be reminded of the importance of feedback before the final draft, something I've been knowing I needed to implement better. Gallagher has a somewhat intensive but pretty good system for making that happen, and I'm looking forward to trying it out (or a custom variation of it) this year.

I think it's worth a read, fellow English teachers.

[Jason Lilly · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I have ever read for teachers who are looking for successful writing strategies to help their students improve their literacy skills. So many books of this type offer generic strategies, such as writing prompts or thesis driven five-paragraph outlines. This book, however, does not ignore the person behind the writer and shares strategies that allow students freedom to choose their topics and build genuine and useful works of writing. Most importantly, it stresses to students the value of strong literacy skills in our competitive world today.

Get this book immediately if you do writing of any type with your students. It will be one of the most (if not THE most) useful guides for you.

[Kristina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kelly Gallagher's stuff always blows my mind. Very practical, very detailed, and pure outside-of-the-box teaching. The only problem is I think I'd die trying to implement all of it. However, each of his books always drastically changes at least a few things I do each year. Since Gallagher insists writers write "to create change," I hope he takes comfort in that he succeeds!

[Sandra Stiles · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is another great book from Kelly Gallagher. I have not been disappointed with anything I have read that was written by him. This is a hands on guide to teaching writing. The book encourages teachers to step out of their comfort zone and write along with the students, as well as in front of them. What better way to teach than showing students how to do it. He advocates for giving students choices in their writing. I had my students create “writing territories” at the beginning of the year. I told them that nothing was off the table. When we did a poem before break I had them return to their writing territories to find a topic. One student asked if she could write about subs, because she loves Subway. She truly was surprised when I told her yes. Along with the “fun” writing are examples of how to write on demand to prepare them for those dreaded state tests. The end of the book has all kinds of reproducible forms. One of his man books I highly recommend.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Practical powerful ideas that complement and validate my own classroom.

[Julia Beaumont · Rating 5 out of 5]

I honestly really enjoyed this book! it has a lot of helpful information and good ideas for the future classroom :)

[Amanda Vaughan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kelly Gallagher has been one of my most preferred authors since being introduced to him at a reading conference. His writing style provides the reader with so many examples that are easy to follow and directly relate to real world teaching practices. His experience as an educator enhances his writing style with practical suggestions that can be modified for almost any grade level. In his book, Teaching Adolescent Writers, Gallagher provides insight into the challenges being faced by educators in the classroom as well as realistic approaches to bridging the gap in student reading and writing. He begins by discussing introducing the metaphor of a literacy stampede to the reader by sharing the following scenario with his students (pg. 3),

“You are growing up in the dawn f the Information Age. More than ever before in history, the ability to read and write will determine how far you will go in this world. For the most part, people who read and write well will compete and prosper; people who read and write poorly will be left behind. Simply put, there is a literacy stampede approaching, and it is bearing down right on top of you. What should you do?”

We are, in fact, in the midst of a literacy stampede. He goes on to discuss how closely intertwined reading and writing are and how little emphasis is spent on the latter, not only in the English Language Arts classroom, but in all classrooms, content areas, and grade levels. Throughout the first two chapters of the book, Gallagher focuses on why writing should become an essential part of our education system. He elaborates on the importance of having the teacher serve as a model for the writing process in addition to using rich mentor texts. He further discusses the need for practical applications in writing and setting a purpose for doing so on a daily basis.

Each chapter in this book expands upon important aspects of writing with specific and applicable examples, organizers, and student samples. Every example is backed by modeled lesson ideas and specific instructions on how to incorporate the ideas into your classroom tomorrow.

Perhaps the most important aspect of this book is on emphasizing the importance of writing and writing often while Gallagher continues to “give permission” to the teacher to not grade everything that students write. His strategies for teaching revision of our own writing in class as well as the writing of students can be used by anyone. And, his specific strategies for integrating grammar and sentence construction into writing simplify one of the most difficult tasks for teachers to teach. There is a plethora of resources provided to seek out further information as well as numerous reproducibles that can be taken into the classroom today.

This book truly resonated with me as teaching writing and finding time to integrate the multiple components into my daily classroom routine has always posed a significant challenge. I am now better able to understand how to teach students to brainstorm, write, revise, and publish their works with little effort. Most of the ideas and strategies presented in the book can be incorporated into mini lessons that fit perfectly with a writing workshop model. I will begin creating my lessons for my classroom next year incorporating many of the ideas I have found in this book.

I highly recommend Teaching Adolescent Writers as a must read for any teacher, regardless of content area or grade, who wishes to give students a better chance at becoming successful writers in the classroom and in the real world.

[Carrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kelly Gallagher does a great job of encouraging those in the teaching profession to help students write well, but also to enjoy the process. Every chapter made me want to run to some English classroom and begin teaching. I highly recommend it.

[Paula Boyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is filled with so many practical suggestions, activities, and ideas for teachers of writers. I have read a few other books by Kelly Gallagher and really enjoy his practical, albeit urgent, approach to literacy instruction. In Teaching Adolescent Writers, readers will learn how to manage writing instruction for large numbers of students, based on years of Gallagher's teaching experience. He believes that students need lots of practice with on-demand writing as well as assignments that are relevant to the age group of students. This author places an emphasis on allowing student choice in writing topics, the importance of conferring, and modeling craft for students. Although it was written with high school teachers in mind, I believe that these ideas are easily adaptable to middle school. It is a very user-friendly professional resource that will have readers nodding their heads, flagging pages, and wanting a co-worker to talk to about Gallagher's book. It is a clearly written, easy to understand teacher's resource. I'd highly recommend it to anyone who has been charged with the daunting task of improving student writing.

[Jeni Enjaian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book and will be including it as a resource for future teaching both in the immediate future and years to come, as long as I teach English and likely even if I transition to teaching history as I desire.
After attending a symposium at which Gallagher presented about this very topic, several of the topics he presented in the conference and in this book spent a little under a year simmering in the back of my brain. I, then, this current school year, took the first step towards really teaching writing by transforming my warm up from rote stem work to a writer's journal. My grand picture/goal has not materialized. I had hoped to use this as a platform for increasing my students' writing fluency yet only writers already inclined, have ever written more than the required five lines.
After reading this book, I already have a ton of ideas on how to improve this and hope to take those into this second semester and beyond.
I highly recommend this book for all teachers, especially those who teach English.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gallagher lays out some of the most solid writing advice you can give to teachers of writing and reading. He seemlessly marries the writing process with critical reading and shows multiple ways to get students engaged and improving on writing, and he shares some important news with teachers: YOU DON'T HAVE TO GRADE EVERYTHING THEY WRITE! This is important for student writers' growth as a writer and teacher sanity. It's probably the number one thing holding writing instruction back in the classroom in my humble opinion. Gallagher neatly and completely dispels that grade everything myth early on and well.

Additionally, he points out the importance of being a responder and not a grader. Gallagher's choice of student work to exemplify what he's teaching is perfect. It's authentic, funny and shows he has a good relationship with his students and is effectively building them into stronger writers.

This is a great book. If you teach "English" whether reading or writing or hopefully both, you need to read this.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is not just for English teachers! I really enjoyed this book. Gallagher's writing is both useful and humorous. I loved all the writing strategies he gives in order to implement the big ideas. I have highlights and post-its all over the book so I can go back and easily find what I most liked. There was one writing prompt that was used in two different strategies so that was a little confusing because I had to go back and hunt for it earlier in the book. However, overall, if you're a teacher, you should read this book.

[Liv · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book started off pretty badly. The introduction was heavy-handed with metaphors and anecdotes about forcing students to write countless essays so that they could score better on standardized tests. The author spent a lot of time tooting his own horn.

Luckily, it the book got better as it went on. I put in tabs as I went and, in this 170-page book, found ten things that I believe will be useful in teaching writing to my students. I’m always looking for books to inspire me and, sadly, this one was not all that inspiring.

[Brandon Haskey-Valerius · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an essential, must-read for any teacher, especially English teachers. There are a treasure-trove of tried and true, practical activities and assignments that any teacher can adapt for their classroom here. My only quibble, albeit slight, is the text is a bit dated and, as a result, some of the activities and units seem just... not possible in the modern classroom for a variety of reasons. So much of this book, though, is important, and I recommend it highly for any teacher.

[adeservingporcupine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read pieces of this book before, but as I continued to worry about writing instruction in my classroom, realized I needed to finally sit down and absorb the whole thing. There are plenty of great ideas here, and many I will be using this week as we start an analysis unit. It serves as a good framework for increasing writing in the classroom.

[Adrienne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is filled with understandable core principles for teaching writing to teens, and useful and intriguing activities for implementing these principles. In combination with the excellent ideas of another great book, Flash Forward, I feels way more prepared to teach writing well. Must reads, both!

[Erin McDonnell-Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would use this as a text in an undergraduate “Teaching Writing” course because it breaks writing down to an accessible level for undergraduate students and helps them dive deeper into the various elements of writing and how they may look in a classroom.

Ideas to model/implement:
(1) Writer’s notebook
(2) Teaching/Learning grammar (page 149 & 150)

[Jacob Runyon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The expert of teaching English to students 6th-12th grade. Phenomenal advice, even though I’d leave out a few bits. Will definitely refer back to this book as the new school year starts to get underway.

[Peter Mulholland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very helpful book. Extremely practical approaches to teaching writing outlined that apply to all contents, not just ELA. I also really appreciated the self-help aspect of the book, and the appendixes have handouts that can easily be applied to a writing task.

[Mr. Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

Obviously, this is an education book. My teacher required us to read this in our class, and it has a lot of really good ideas, strategies, and implementations used in a logical manner. Very good read if you're an ELA teacher.

[Melissapalmer404 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found Gallagher's books with Penny Kittle an easier flowing read than this one but it has good strategies for teaching writing. I enjoyed hearing him speak this past fall at our state English conference.

[Audrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this for a course on teaching writing. Made me feel excited to teach high school English!

[Jennifer Margeson · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved it!!! so useful

[CD · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great ideas for teaching writing in the classroom.

[Robert]

Kelly's masterpiece.

[Kelsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

So many tried and true strategies for teaching writing! This book is going to be my bible this year!

[Antoinette Van Beck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very practical examples and explanations of how to conduct effective, personalized classroom policy and invested teaching of writing.

[Leigh Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reread this for a department book study. Still so many takeaways.