This book is a "best of" collection of tips and exercises to help nurture young writers and strengthen core skills. Since each activity has been tried and tested in thousands of classrooms, you'll find successful methods for turning even the most reluctant students into effective, powerful writers. Writing proficiency is more important than ever, especially with the demands of standardized testing and the rigors of new standards impacting our schools. This classroom-tested manual, created from a combination of the author's extensive in-class experience and acclaimed research in neural science and developmental biology, addresses all facets of writing competency. The content links to common core curriculum elements in state language arts standards for every state. Written by experienced educator and author Kendall Haven, the work features 13 innovative writing tips and 30 engaging activities for helping students become better writers. The first part of the book covers writing hints and techniques, while the second half contains core content activities for coaxing the best writing out of your students. A short introductory section lays out the five steps of effective student writing. Lastly, the text reveals how teachers—even those from non-literary backgrounds—can successfully teach and grade writing.

This book is a "best of" collection of tips and exercises to help nurture young writers and strengthen core skills. Since each activity has been tried and tested in thousands of classrooms, you'll find successful methods for turning even the most reluctant students into effective, powerful writers. Writing proficiency is more important than ever, especially with the demands of standardized testing and the rigors of new standards impacting our schools. This classroom-tested manual, created from a combination of the author's extensive in-class experience and acclaimed research in neural science and developmental biology, addresses all facets of writing competency. The content links to common core curriculum elements in state language arts standards for every state. Written by experienced educator and author Kendall Haven, the work features 13 innovative writing tips and 30 engaging activities for helping students become better writers. The first part of the book covers writing hints and techniques, while the second half contains core content activities for coaxing the best writing out of your students. A short introductory section lays out the five steps of effective student writing. Lastly, the text reveals how teachers—even those from non-literary backgrounds—can successfully teach and grade writing.

This guided workbook will develop all the skills needed for effective narrative writing and give students practice creating work in a range of styles and genres. The first section contains sets of exercises and writing prompts that will develop the narrative writing skills listed in the Common Core State Standards. The second section gives students practice applying the skills by writing a wide range of narrative texts. Key Features - Focused sets develop key narrative writing skills one by one - Each set introduces the skill, guides students to complete a task, and then provides independent practice - Examples, guided tasks, and hints teach students how to produce effective writing - Additional warm-up exercises prepare students for each set - Covers sequence, plot, setting, characterization, theme, dialogue, and descriptions - Tasks teach students writing techniques like using concrete words, using sensory details, writing first-person stories, and using transition words and phrases Develops the Key Skills of Narrative Writing - Understanding sequence - Developing a focused plot - Introducing and developing characters - Establishing a setting - Using dialogue effectively - Using descriptions of actions, thoughts, and feelings - Using linking words and phrases to show event order - Writing effective conclusions Includes Practice for a Wide Range of Narratives - Personal narratives - Diary entries - Letters - Science fiction - Adventures stories - Mystery stories

Matches the New Next Generation Learning Standards introduced in 2017! This guided workbook will develop all the skills needed for effective narrative writing and give students practice creating a wide range of narrative texts. The first section contains sets of exercises and writing prompts that will develop the narrative writing skills listed in the Common Core Learning Standards. The second section gives students practice applying the skills by writing a wide range of narrative texts. Section 1: Developing Narrative Writing Skills - focused sets develop key narrative writing skills one by one - develops all the narrative writing skills described in the Common Core standards - each set introduces the skill, guides students to complete a task, and then provides independent practice - examples, guided tasks, and hints teach students how to produce effective writing - additional warm-up exercises prepare students for each set - covers sequence, plot, setting, characterization, theme, dialogue, and descriptions - tasks teach students writing techniques like using effective descriptions, writing first-person stories, and using transition words and phrases Section 2: Applying Narrative Writing Skills - 10 sets of writing prompts allow students to apply narrative writing skills - each set focuses on one style or one genre of narrative writing - includes practice writing personal narratives, diary entries, letters, science fiction, adventure stories, mystery stories, and more - hints and tips guide students through the tasks - students are encouraged to edit and revise their completed work - prepares students for the types of writing tasks found on assessment tasks and tests

This guided workbook will develop all the skills needed for effective narrative writing and give students practice creating work in a range of styles and genres. The first section contains sets of exercises and writing prompts that will develop the narrative writing skills listed in the Common Core State Standards. The second section gives students practice applying the skills by writing a wide range of narrative texts. Key Features - Focused sets develop key narrative writing skills one by one - Each set introduces the skill, guides students to complete a task, and then provides independent practice - Examples, guided tasks, and hints teach students how to produce effective writing - Additional warm-up exercises prepare students for each set - Covers sequence, plot, setting, characterization, theme, dialogue, and descriptions - Tasks teach students writing techniques like using concrete words, using sensory details, writing first-person stories, and using transition words and phrases Develops the Key Skills of Narrative Writing - Understanding sequence - Developing a focused plot - Introducing and developing characters - Establishing a setting - Using dialogue effectively - Using descriptions of actions, thoughts, and feelings - Using concrete words and sensory details - Using linking words and phrases to show event order - Writing effective conclusions Includes Practice for a Wide Range of Narratives - Personal narratives - Diary entries - Letters - Science fiction - Adventures stories - Mystery stories

Provides Complete Coverage of the Common Core Writing Standards! This workbook is specifically designed to develop the full range of writing skills expected of North Carolina students. Students will write in response to passages, as well as write narratives, opinion pieces, and essays. Students will gain experience completing research projects and edit and revise their work. This workbook will develop all the writing skills listed in the Common Core State Standards. Provides Ongoing Skill Development and Practice - Ten convenient practice sets allow for ongoing skill development - Each practice set contains two reading comprehension tasks where students write in response to passages - Each practice set contains two writing tasks where students write a short story, personal narrative, opinion piece, or essay - Guided writing tasks include hints, planning activities, and review checklists to guide students and encourage strong skill development - Each set includes additional core skills exercises that focus on key writing skills Key Benefits of this Workbook - Flexible format allows practice sets to be completed to suit any schedule - Develops all the writing skills listed in North Carolina's Common Core standards - Provides extensive experience providing written answers to reading comprehension questions - Rigorous tasks encourage deeper understanding and more advanced thinking - Guided tasks teach students how to write effective essays, opinion pieces, and narratives - Tips, planning, and review activities teach the key features expected of student writing - Format allows for review after each set to provide feedback and promote improvement Full Coverage of North Carolina's Common Core State Standards - Covers all the types of writing in the standards, including opinion pieces, informative/explanatory texts, and narratives - Includes exercises for additional writing skills, including completing research projects and gathering information from sources - Reading comprehension tasks also develop strong reading skills

Student Writers Go the Distance with a Strength-Training Approach Good writers don’t wing it—they have a plethora of skills. They list, picture, circle, strategize and revise to make language come alive. They know what to use and when. Like ace athletes, they are highly trained, well-versed in the techniques found in this lively book. Writing Workouts provides a method for instruction that gives students the fun they want and the targeted skill practice they need. Slinky paragraphs, pop-up poems, paint chip plotting, and many other activities get the serious business of teaching critical and creative writing done. Author Rebecca Harper shows you how to go about it systematically, so writing is tied to relevant lessons and writing standards. Help students learn to: Hone skills in persuasive writing, argument, fiction, poetry, memoir and more Toggle between brief and multi-step writing tasks, to build stamina (and not hyperventilate when faced with complex compositions) Tap into auditory, visual, and kinesthetic, and digital components of crafting Think about word, sentence, and paragraph-level techniques Jump the high-jumps of research writing by getting good at each smaller leap Students in middle school and high school often feel they are forever-sprinting toward a high-stakes writing task. With Writing Workouts, you help students crowd out stress with a strength-training approach to success.