Writing Workshop Survival Kit

SECOND EDITION

The second edition of the Writing Workshop Survival Kit offers English teachers and writing teachers in grades 5-12 a thoroughly updated and revised guide to teaching the writing process. This comprehensive, step-by-step resource is an invaluable aid for teachers who are conducting a writing workshop or managing a writing workshop in the classroom. The book includes activities, numerous reproducibles, and 100 mini-lessons that concentrate on various types of writing, writing techniques, and the mechanics of writing. In addition, the second edition contains new material on timely topics such as Enlisting Support for Your Writing Workshop, Using Search Engines to Find Information on the Internet, The Use of Computers in Revision, and How to Establish a Web Site to Display Student Writing.

The new edition is designed for easy use and the lay-flat format makes photocopying the book's reproducibles a snap. Each activity and mini-lesson can stand alone, allowing teachers to use the materials in a manner that best suits their classroom environments and their students' abilities.

Part I: THE DYNAMICS OF THE WRITING WORKSHOP

AN OVERVIEW OF THE WRITING WORKSHOP presents topics such as the teacher's role, a model of the typical workshop, scheduling, and promoting the writing workshop.

MANAGING YOUR WRITING WORKSHOP contains information on creating and maintaining a successful writing environment, time management, discipline, evaluation, and monitoring students' progress.

Part II: THE STAGES OF THE WRITING PROCESS

PREWRITING includes topics such as freewriting, brainstorming,

DRAFTING provides strategies for writing drafts.

REVISION offers information including tips for teaching revision, pitfalls to avoid, using computers in revision, and writing conference strategies.

EDITING includes strategies for teaching editing skills; using a dictionary, thesaurus, or author's stylebook; and working with editing partners.

PUBLISHING provides information on various ways to publish and share student writing, e-mail etiquette for writers, tips for producing class magazines, and Web sites that publish the writing of students.

Part III: USING MINI-LESSONS IN THE WRITING WORKSHOP

MINI-LESSONS FOR TYPES OF WRITING includes 16 mini-lessons on topics such as narratives, essays, articles, fiction, movie reviews, advertising, rhyming poems, and strategies for taking writing tests.

MINI-LESSONS FOR THE ART OF WRITING offers 29 mini-lessons on topics such as effective leads, developing imagery, managing point of view, transitions, cutting clutter, avoiding clichés, and more.

MINI-LESSONS FOR THE MECHANICS OF WRITING contains 55 mini-lessons that cover topics such as subject-verb agreement, paragraphing, varying sentences, using confusing words correctly, and much more.

"Gary Muschla's Writing Workshop Survival Kit provides many effective strategies that will make the writing process a more enjoyable, efficient, and productive experience for your students. They will become more confident writers who will both look forward to and benefit from these valuable classroom-tested activities. Muschla leaves no stone unturned in this comprehensive and insightful journey through the writing process. Writing Workshop Survival Kit should be a part of every writing teacher's library!" --Jack Umstatter, English teacher and author, Cold Spring Harbor School District, Cold Spring Harbor, New York