Craft Lessons: Teaching Writing K-8

Author: Ralph Fletcher and Joann Portalupi
Format: Paperback
Published: Stenhouse Publishers, 1998

Ralph Fletcher and JoAnn Portalupi present practical ways to help students make critical decisions about crafting leads, voice, structure, supporting detail, setting, mood, and character. There are three main sections in Craft Lessons: one geared for teachers of primary students, one for teachers of grades 3-4, and one for teachers of middle school writers. This developmental structure allows teachers to go directly to those craft lessons most applicable and adaptable to their own students. Each of the 78 lessons is presented on a single page in an easy-to-read format. Every lesson features three teaching guidelines: Discussion - a brief look at the reasons for teaching the particular element of craft; How to Teach It - concrete language showing exactly how a teacher might bring this craft element to students in individual writing conferences or a small-group setting; Resource Material - a listing of the book or text referred to in the craft lesson plus additional texts you can use and references to a passage, a poem, or a piece of student writing in the Appendixes.