Where do
English teachers start when introducing different genres of writing?
“Learning
begins with activity and learning benefits from reinforcement and repetition.”
—Peter Smagorinsky, Larry Johannessen, Elizabeth
Kahn, and Thomas McCann
An
indispensable companion for scaffolding the writing process, The Dynamics of Writing Instruction is a
guide to working with any student who could benefit from a structured approach.
The book is packed full of how-tos, offering everything a teacher needs to get
started: gateway activities, strategies, handouts, and a blueprint of
possibilities to consider while interpreting and implementing the
curriculum.
Peter Smagorinsky, Larry Johannessen, Elizabeth Kahn, and Thomas McCann draw on the teaching and research of George Hillocks to break
down the writing process into more manageable steps. Across the commonly taught
genres of personal and fictional narratives, essays of argumentation,
comparison and contrast, extended definition, and research reports, the authors
share teacher-designed, developmentally appropriate, task-based activities for:
- developing procedures for
rendering ideas into text
- fostering goal-directed
thinking
- generating appropriate,
repeatable writing processes
- cultivating imagination
alongside strategic thinking.
George
Hillocks’ comprehensive review of writing research revealed that over a
twenty-year period, structured process writing instruction yielded greater
gains than any other method of teaching writing. Now, with The Dynamics of Writing Instruction, teachers can help students
fulfill their writing potential by helping them learn by doing and by building
their writing ability, one step at a time.
Big challenges.
