Product Details

• Author: JoAnn Portalupi and Ralph Fletcher
• Year: 2001
• Grade Range: K-8

• Media: 160 pp/paper
• ISBN: 978-157110-329-1
• Item No.: WEB-0329

Writing nonfiction represents a big step for most students. Most young writers are not intimidated by personal narrative, fiction, or even poetry, but when they try to put together a "teaching book," report, or persuasive essay, they often feel anxious and frustrated.

JoAnn Portalupi and Ralph Fletcher believe that young nonfiction writers supply plenty of passion, keen interest, and wonder. Teachers can provide concrete strategies to help students scaffold their ideas as they write in his challenging genre.

Like the authors' best-selling book, Craft Lessons: Teaching Writing K-8, this book is divided into sections for K-2, 3-4, and middle school (grades 5-8) students. These divisions reflect various differences between emerging, competent, and fluent writers. In each section you'll find a generous collection of craft lessons directed at the genre that's most appropriate for that particular age. In the K-2 section, for example, a number of craft lessons focus on the all-about or concept book. In the 3-4 section there are several lessons on biography. In the 5-8 section a series of lessons addresses expository writing. Throughout the book each of the 80 lessons is presented on a single page in an easy-to-read format.

Every lesson features three teaching guidelines:

• Discussion--A brief look at the reasons for teaching the particular element of craft specifically in a nonfiction context.
• How to Teach It--Concrete language showing exactly how a teacher might bring this craft element to students in writing conferences or a small-group setting.
• Resource Material--Specific book or text referred to in the craft lesson including trade books, or a piece of student writing in the Appendixes.

This book will help students breathe voice into lifeless "dump-truck" writing and improve their nonfiction writing by making it clearer, more authoritative, and more organized. Nonfiction Craft Lessons gives teachers a wealth of practical strategies to help students grow into strong writers as they explore and explain the world around them.

Be sure to look at the When Students Write videotapes, too.

Table of Contents

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Contents
Alphabetical List of Nonfiction Craft Lessons
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Setting the Table for Nonfiction Craft
Adorning the Table: Nonfiction Literature for Students
Nonfiction Craft Lessons K-2
Nonfiction Craft Lessons 3-4
Nonfiction Craft Lessons 5-8
Questions and Answers
Appendixes A-V
References
Topic Index

Ralph Fletcher
Ralph Fletcher is a friend of writing teachers everywhere. Born in Plymouth, Mass., he received his bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College and his master's degree from Columbia University.
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JoAnn Portalupi
JoAnn Portalupi likes to introduce herself as a mother, teacher, writer, and artist. Each of these roles informs the work she does in the field of teaching writing.
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