The Write Genre

How do we make writing meaningful to students? A leading educator and a popular novelist present a refreshing exploration of how the challenges of professional writers can give students new insights into writing.

The Write Genre presents a balanced approach to writing workshops in grades 3–9. It provides hands-on activities that focus on all stages of the writing process, with teacher-directed assignments and self-selected writing lessons that emphasize writing to learn. These unique lessons are designed to help students write with a concrete purpose and audience in mind and complete assignments that are more focused and authentic.

Organized around six writing genres, more than fifty mini-lessons deal with specific skills that help students write effective fiction and nonfiction in a variety of genres:

• personal memoir—from techniques involving a personal memoir timeline and organizer to great ways to start, create powerful paragraphs, and cut the clutter;
• fictional narrative—from character, plot, and dialogue to point of view and conflict resolution;
• informational report—from strategies for reading nonfiction and K-W-L-S organizers to adding voice and style;
• opinion piece—from loaded words and other persuasive writing techniques to business letters and topical issues;
• procedural writing—from incorporating visuals and interviewing experts to techniques for writing imperative sentences;
• poetry—from teaching the "tools" and specific forms of poetry to creating a poetry anthology.

For easy classroom implementation, the key elements of many mini-lessons are also presented in reproducible pages, including frameworks, organizers, prompts, checklists, and grids.

The book offers chapters devoted to the writing process, writing workshop, and using rubrics for instruction and assessment. The concluding chapter pulls all the threads together with a multi-genre project that involves students in using the skills they have learned throughout the school year.