Lessons That Change Writers [with Binder]

by Nancie Atwell, Lucy Calkins

In Lessons That Change Writers, Nancie has narrowed and deepened her conversation with teachers, to focus on the minilesson as a vehicle for helping students improve their writing. She shares over a hundred of these writing lessons which are described by her students as "the best of the best." The lessons fall into the following four categories that provide the structure for this book: Lessons about Topics: ways to develop ideas for pieces of writing that will matter to writers and to their readers Lessons about Principles of Writing: ways to think and write deliberately to create literature Lessons about Genre: in which we observe and name the ways that good free verse poems, formatted poetry, essays, short stories, memoirs, thank-you letters, profiles, parodies, and book reviews work and Lessons about Conventions: what readers' eyes and minds have been trained to expect, and how marks and forms function to give writing more voice and power and to make reading predictable and easy. Learn more about Lessons That Change Writers by visiting www.lessonsthatchangewriters.com where you can review the table of contents, download sample lessons, read a passage from the introduction, and watch a lesson walk through

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

1102 pages, Ring-bound

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Atwell has created the perfect book for new teachers: she presents her personal scripts (rather than just lesson plans), her handouts, and her rationale for everything she does. Reading it really helped me think about how I will want to organize activities in my classroom. This book presents her lessons about memoir, short fiction, poetry, essays, and writing generally. You can read the lessons in the order they are presented (thematically), or you can follow the chronological order in which she normally teaches the lessons. The chronological version was particularly valuable to me, because you can't get a feeling of the entire year from limited field experiences.
I'm looking forward to checking out her book about reading poetry.

[Kate Chambers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lessons That Change Writers by Nancie Atwell is a great resource for secondary ELA teachers. The book begins with an introduction, description of the conditions of a writing workshop, explanation of the expectations and rules for writing workshop, mini-lesson basics, a chronology of the mini-lessons throughout the year, and then a detailed collection of 76 of Atwell's tried and true mini-lessons. Atwell breaks the mini-lessons up into four sections- lessons about topics, lessons about principles, lessons about genres, and lessons about conventions- which are further broken down into helpful categories like genre-specific courses of study and troubleshooting for spelling essentials. The accompanying electronic binder is full of the mentor texts, inspirational quotes, and other "reproducibles" from each lesson.

In her introduction to this book, Atwell explains her original reluctance to write a book of mini-lessons, fearing that teachers would simply adopt the lessons without keeping their particular classrooms in mind. However, she shares that one of the best ways for teachers to learn is by watching and reading about the practices of other educators. Therefore, she has provided her mini-lessons with an explanation of what she was thinking for each lesson, a script of how she would teach the lesson, follow-up lessons and follow-up assignments, and description of related materials like mentor texts. Atwell shares that it is her hope that teachers will take the lessons and the language used in the script and adapt it to fit their own students, classrooms, and teaching styles.

I love that Atwell is sharing the ideas that have been identified by her students as the lessons that made a difference, or changed them as writers. What could be more rewarding for a teacher than to have students name lessons that have impacted them? What total confirmation that you are doing what works for kids! Throughout the book, it was clear to me that Atwell is skilled at building rapport with her students and that she cares deeply about their success. The high expectations she communicates combined with research-based scaffolds and meaningful assignments made this book one that I will look to again and again.

I think this book could be an excellent resource for middle school teachers of students with a variety of reading and writing levels. Truthfully, I think many of the lessons could be adapted to help elementary or high school writers as well. As a special education teacher, my students are still developing writers, but I feel confident that these lessons could easily be modified to their level, and I am hopeful that they will rise to the level of the more complex lessons as they progress throughout the year. I am especially very excited to try Atwell's personalized word study method of teaching spelling. I like that Atwell offers a chronological listing of lessons in a tentative year of study that she has developed through her teaching career, based on what students tend to need, and when. I wish the book was written in this format, instead of separated by lesson topics, because I found myself wanting to know how she kicked off the year and moved through the units without having to look back in the table of contents to find each lesson.

I have struggled to implement a writer's workshop model in my first years of teaching, but this book makes me motivated to take on the challenge. However, it should be noted that this book is not focused on the entire writer's workshop, but on the mini-lesson portion of it. Someone who is truly new to the writer's workshop process should probably seek out additional resources to learn about the other parts of the workshop. That being said, I know I will return to the sections explaining the conditions, expectations, and rules for writing workshop as I work to set mine up this year.

Overall, I highly recommend this book to any teacher wanting guidance with developing quality, meaningful mini-lessons for the writing workshop framework. The version with the electronic binder was costly but so worth it for the amount of resources provided.

[The Reading Countess · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm Nancie Atwell's number one fan. Having used her In the Middle and Naming the World for years (autographed by her when I interned at her school in 2008), I knew how teacher-friendly and powerful her books were. She "gets" teachers because she IS one. She's not one of those professional book authors who has forgotten how hard it is to get into the muck of things and sully your hands. So when I decided to take the (financial) plunge on Lessons That Change Writers (having mooned over it for entirely too long), I knew that I would get a lot of bang for my buck. And of course, Atwell being Atwell, she delivered-big time.

Lessons That Change Writers is a veritable how-to for both novice as well as seasoned teachers. Poetry and memoir are what springboards her students into a year of writing, and I heartily agree with her that you can squeeze so many writing tools out of these genres if you begin the year with them. Sadly, though, my district is currently rewriting the curriculum to fit Units of Study, and have decided to start the year with short stories. Somehow, I will continue to infuse my kids with poetry nearly daily.

Having seen her teach "The Lesson of So-What" in person, I am a huge believer in getting to the heart of WHY you are writing in the first place. "So what? Why are you writing this? Why should I care?" Once kids get this essential question, their writing flourishes.

I especially enjoyed her thoughts about crafting fiction. Last year, my grade level embarded on Nanowrimo. Although it was our introductory year and we considered simply finishing a success-I'd like to grow my kids more than what I did last year groping in the dark. Thoughts on character development and plot structure in her book will surely help me guide them on their adventure of writing a novel in a month.

Nancie Atwell includes essay writing, letter writing, and even gifts of writing in her thoughtful book. Common grammatical issues are even included. Lessons That Change Writers could conceivably be titled Lessons That Change Teachers. A quick read, this one is sure to help me on my second year of middle school in the fall.

Highly recommended.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read Atwell's In the Middle: New Understanding About Writing, Reading, and Learning three years ago and it changed my beliefs and procedures for teaching English drastically. My English class is modeled off of that book, and so I was thrilled when I found Lessons That Change Writers because it gave me an opportunity to look inside Atwell's head and classroom to see the specific lessons she uses, down to the script and handouts. For busy teachers who don't have the time to go do the research themselves and make handouts and write notes, this is the perfect addition to their classroom.

[Sean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cannot get enough; though Attwell teaches middle school in the North Eastern USA, her lessons are easily adaptable to both higher and lower grades. It is amazing to be able to ditch the textbook for the most part and use a lesson that a consummate professional (not an ivory tower academician) has created and used and tested for many years. Were I in charge of a BEd program, she would be compulsory reading- and practice. My students continue to gain a great deal through my use of her materials.

[Erika Forth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A whole year's worth of writing workshop mini-lessons! I found tons of great lessons I am going to use in my classroom. Each lesson tells you Atwell's thoughts behind it, a narrative of how to do the lesson, and reproducibles and student examples (If you get the accompanying binder). Aimed at the middle school level, but would work just as well for high school.

[Sarah Krajewski · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found some great ideas for workshop lessons.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been using this book to teach some Writing Workshop mini-lessons to my language arts classes. I think it's really useful because each section is written as a lesson, so you can use it directly in your instruction. I think it's pretty relevant and imagine that I will continue to use it in the future.

Also, the accompanying resource kit/binder is fantastic. Lots of transparencies!

[Pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am enjoying using this book in my Teaching Composition course this semester. It has me writing-- for FUN!-- again!!!

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

I must have for any English teacher. I can't teach without this one.

[Alicia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I went to a conference to see Nanci Atwell talk about this book before I read it. I am really excited to use it to improve my curriculum for my struggling Sophomores.

[Debbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This binder has a wealth of minilessons that can immediately be used in the classroom to strengthen your writing workshop program.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is invaluable to me for my upcoming writing workshop. I am very inspired by her ideas.

[Tandava Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great resource, chunked into short, mix-n-matchable lessons, with actual scripts of how Ms. Atwell presents them to her classes. I borrowed the copy I’m reading, so I don’t have the binder of handouts to photocopy, but I’ll have to see if I can track that down as well. Some of the handouts are shown as small images in the lessons, so you can read them if your eyes are good, but not all of them. There’s certainly enough information to create your own resources if you need to, though. Overall, this is a fantastic help to someone (me) who is going into teaching middle school Languages Arts in a month.

[Erika Reynolds · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was hoping to receive more information on how to actually run a writing workshop, but this is full of specific activities for mini-lessons and conferencing with students. Over half of the book is marked and I can tell I’ll be reaching for this throughout the entire school year.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really flexible lessons that I've used from high school age to primary school. Lots of great student examples and meaningful lesson prompts.

[Heather Sobek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful!

[Elisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such great lessons that I used with middle and high school teachers and their students.