Teaching Writing

by Lucy Calkins

"Writing allows each of us to live with that special wide-awakeness that comes from knowing that our lives and our ideas are worth writing about." -Lucy Calkins Teaching Writing is Lucy Calkins at her best-a distillation of the work that's placed Lucy and her colleagues at the forefront of the teaching of writing for over thirty years. This book promises to inspire teachers to teach with renewed passion and power and to invigorate the entire school day.

This is a book for readers who want an introduction to the writing workshop, and for those who've lived and breathed this work for decades. Although Lucy addresses the familiar topics-the writing process, conferring, kinds of writing, and writing assessment- she helps us see those topics with new eyes. She clears away the debris to show us the teeny details, and she shows us the majesty and meaning, too, in these simple yet powerful teaching acts. Download a sample chapter for more information.

Genres: Teaching, Nonfiction, Education, Professional Development

224 pages, Paperback

Published January 17, 2020

Reviews

[Beth Honeycutt]

I’m not going to rate this book, but I will write a short note.

I am a believer in the work, research, knowledge, experience, and writing of Lucy Calkins. I will honestly say that I don’t understand people who don’t.

This book is a good reminder about how to “teach the writer and not the writing”. The chapters about workshop and conferring with writers are not to be missed. I plan to share much for the chapter about writing across the curriculum with colleagues.

If you haven’t read a professional book about the teaching of writing in awhile, I would highly recommend this one!

[Ellen Riggenbach · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very worthwhile book to pick up and I’m grateful that Lucy wrote this concise book that very clearly lays out the history, components, and power of the writer’s workshop. After being introduced and going through some training and coaching, but then landing feeling alone in a big school board, this book helped me see how i can step back into it and to be courageous to invite others to join me on this journey. This would be a great book to introduce or reintroduce teachers to workshop. I hope to read this book with fellow teachers in my school board. I’m reignited and super syked for this summer’s writing institute!!!

[Teresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

During my teaching career, I worked with several iterations of Writing Workshop, and eventually, Reading Workshop. I have participated in Saturday reunions at Columbia, both online and in person. With that perspective, I absolutely loved this book. I loved learning about the processes that led to Workshop, and I had so many "aha" and "me too" moments while reading it.
I assigned this book while working with pre service teachers. Without the context, they did not find it as useful. In later semesters, I shared many of the insights I gleaned from the book, without requiring that students read it themselves.

[Pat Braun · Rating 3 out of 5]

An okay read if you already know what Calkins is doing. At times the text feels like an infomercial for her Units of Study. But there are some well explained applicable ideas that will impact your teaching.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the anecdotes and information on writing but there wasn't a lot of how-to. So much referred back to her Units of Study or other books.