Coaching Writing in Content Areas: Write-for-Insight Strategies, Grades 6-12 - Softcover

Strong, William

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0132690047 ISBN 13: 9780132690041

Publisher: Pearson, 2011

Synopsis

Coaching Writing in Content Areas: Write-for-Insight Strategies, Grades 6―12, Second Edition, is packed with practical, motivating strategies for making writing a tool for learning, and for integrating it into content area instruction. Designed to help new and veteran teachers work smarter, not harder, the book is written by William Strong, one of America’s most respected writing instructors. The clear, personal voice of the book and its illustrative examples drawn from the work of expert teachers made the first edition a “thumbs-up” favorite with National Writing Project sites across the nation. This new edition expands these features, covers new strategies, and includes new samples of assignments, rubrics, and student writing throughout.

About this title

Review

I found many helpful examples and suggestions. I would definitely recommend this book to our literacy coach for use in future training sessions.

 

The concepts and examples were up-to-date and mirrored some of the materials I’ve read in other publications or heard in workshops I’ve attended. The concept of using writing as a learning tool is very timely for the introduction of writing into content area classrooms.

 

The book offers a wide range of examples that span the struggling writer, the resistant writer, and the motivated writer.

 

Madelaine Kingsbury, English Teacher, Overbrook High School, Philadelphia, PA

 

 

This book has the feel of an English-teacher-oriented book, although it clearly has ideas and implications for ALL secondary teachers.

The market appears saturated with books on how to teach content area reading and literacy, with writing, as Strong incorporates it, as an afterthought.  There is clearly a need for Strong’s book in the market of writing across the curriculum.

 

I definitely did enjoy the author’s tone overall.  It is always personal and never patronizing. The author attempts to reach all content area teachers, a truly difficult challenge, which he meets with good success.

 

I strongly recommended it to my student teacher who is looking for more writing ideas for her classes (she loved the idea of students writing a dialogue between animals on the food chain). 

 

The discussion on note-taking and note-making was excellent and immediately useful for teachers.  I already use Cornell Notes in my classes, and this is a natural transition. 

 

The Formats for Writing chart on page 46 is invaluable.  Excellent.

 

I am an English teacher, and my students would eagerly do ANY of the writing assignments in this book....

 

Margaret Carlock, English Teacher, Lecanto High School, Lecanto, FL

From the Back Cover

This practical resource is designed to help new and veteran teachers work smarter, not harder. Written by one of America’s most respected writing professors, Coaching Writing in Content Areas is packed with Write-for-Insight strategies. These motivating, ready-to-use strategies help make writing a tool for learning, integrating it into content area instruction.

 

In this coaching guide, Bill Strong draws on the work of expert content teachers. Early chapters show how expressive writing can spark active learning; the later chapters demonstrate how public writing can extend students’ knowledge, preparing them for future success in academic and employment arenas.

 

The clear, personal voice of the book coupled with its rich examples made the first edition a “thumbs-up” favorite with writing project sites across the nation. Now the second edition has been updated to include:

• A new chapter, “Writing in a Digital World” (Ch. 10).
• Profiles of expert content-area teachers in real-life settings, including examples in the areas of health, science, mathematics, social studies, and language arts.
• New samples of writing prompts, rubrics, and student writing.
• Fresh examples of “flexible teaming,” “wall text,” and “cubing” strategies.
• A simplified and streamlined framework of discourse categories in the Preface.
• A new overview of 11 research-based strategies for teaching writing to adolescents in the Epilogue.
• Updated references and a reorganized Table of Contents.

Praise for the first edition:

“Bill Strong presents a clear and compelling case for using writing to learn as a tool across the curriculum. The author’s anecdotes and his rich, descriptive writing draw the reader into this thought-provoking text and the wealth of practical strategies and activities presented give content area teachers concrete ideas to implement in their classrooms.”

―Carol Booth Olson, UCI Writing Project, University of California, Irvine

 

“William Strong’s ...book...is easily the freshest, smartest, and most readable addition to the secondary Writing Across the Curriculum literature in recent years. Beautifully written and intellectually engaging, Write for Insight’s 10 chapters lay out processes and procedures to guide content teachers interested in integrating writing into their curricula but unsure how to proceed.”

–Kathleen Dudden Rowlands, “A Review of Write for Insight: Empowering Content Area Learning, Grades 6―12,” The WAC Journal

 

“Write for Insight is a gift from one of the elders of the literacy tribe. This...book by William Strong is loaded with ideas and strategies for all teachers to use writing ‘as a tool for learning (or refining) content knowledge’ (p. 8; emphasis in the original).”

–Tom Romano, “Professional Materials: Write for Insight: Empowering Content Area Learning, Grades 6―12,” Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy (Copyright © 2006 by the International Reading Association)

Edition details

• Publisher: Pearson
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0132690047
• ISBN 13: 9780132690041
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 216