Teaching the Qualities of Writing

Book excerpt: JoAnn Portalupi and Ralph Fletcher is a ready-to-use writing curriculum that provides you with the instruction students need to improve the quality of their writing and at the same time develops your ability to read and assess your students' writing. These hands-on lessons explore the qualities of writing-ideas, design, language, presentation-and show how, when each is infused with voice, the writer's personality energizes the writing. Teacher's Guide The 104-page Teacher's Guide introduces the four qualities of writing and describes the role of voice in effective writing; offers strategies for choosing lessons based on genre cycles or on student and teacher needs and interests; and provides a broad array of assessment and record-keeping forms. An Instructional Challenge Chart matches TQW lessons to your students' needs and demonstrates the assessment-teaching loop. Lesson Cards A complete lesson is provided on each of the 112 lesson cards. The front of each card provides a straightforward lesson in a concise three-part structure. The back of each card provides exemplar texts and other lesson-specific teaching support. Looking at Student Writing CD-ROM The Looking at Student Writing CD-ROM provides both video and print resources to support your writing curriculum. Through video clips, JoAnn and Ralph provide practical advice on how to organize and teach with TQW. An innovative electronic presentation allows you to listen in and observe JoAnn and Ralph as they analyze 24 samples of student writing. Assessment masters and other reproducibles provide practical support for your writing curriculum