180 Days to Successful Writers
Lessons to Prepare Your Students for Standardized Assessments and for Life
- Karen Donohue - Lockheed Elementary
- Nanda N. Reddy
Enhance your students' writing skills and boost their scores on standardized writing tests!
In today's high-stakes environment, standardized test scores not only gauge student performance, but are also linked to a school's status and the funding it receives. This helpful resource provides educators with a classroom-tested writing curriculum that has proven to boost student scores on standardized writing tests while helping them develop skills for lifelong writing success.
The authors offer structured, day-to-day lesson plans linked to national standards; easy-to-use writing tools; and carefully crafted, unscripted lessons that cover a scope and follow a sequence that aims for student success. This curriculum is designed to help you:
- Become a confident writing teacher
- Prepare your students for all practical applications of writing
- Provide students with the analytical tools and skills they need to succeed on standardized writing tests
- Accommodate students' strengths and weaknesses
- Create confident readers and writers of your most reluctant students
Your students need more than writing prompts and grammar lessons to ensure they will have lifelong writing success. Finally--a way for teachers to provide quality writing instruction that allows them to meet testing demands on time and with confidence!
"This book provides a clear day-by-day instructional plan, including materials, objectives, step-by-step lesson plans, references for students, graphic organizers, prompts, and writing samples."
"The book is eminently practical and written with the kind of detail and clarity that allows every reader to move toward greater success in the teaching of writing...even under today's high pressure circumstances."
"The strategies introduced in this book have worked exceedingly well with my own students. Teachers will marvel at how their students will grow as confident, successful writers when taking this systematic approach."
"I was most impressed with the extension lessons. As a teacher of gifted students, I am constantly questing well designed writing projects that encompass multiple skills and styles. (These) lessons, without modification, (are) valuable learning devices."
"Addressing the needs of students who are missing basic literacy tools while also challenging students whose abilities are more developed, this book provides a compendium of teaching ideas for students to write for multiple purposes and in multiple genres, . . . (with) innovative avenues for teachers to work collaboratively with each other in shaping a writing program that makes sense for their own classrooms."
"180 Days to Successful Writers is just the kind of instructional resource that teachers have been waiting for! This book provides simple, practical advice for developing an effective writing program in elementary classrooms . . . (and) a framework of step-by-step daily instruction."
"The structured lesson plan format, the use of graphic organizers, and the incorporation of the writing process are key strategies that should be utilized to promote higher levels of writing. With all of the current research on the importance of writing across the curriculum, this book is a 'must have' for educators everywhere."
"Donohue and Reddy . . . have provided a tested, skill-oriented program to alleviate the stress associated with teaching writing, and empower teachers with the confidence and stucture necessary for success."
"This book demystifies the writing process with a research-based, systematic and methodical approach. It gives teachers well planned, thorough lessons that . . . will guide students and give them the critical stepping stones to become proficient, confident writers in all genres.
"I am so excited to have this program in written form. It has made such a difference in my students' writing abilities."
