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Brighten Up Boring Beginnings and Other Quick Writing Lessons
10 to 15-Minute Mini-Lessons and Reproducible Activities That Sharpen Students' Writing Skills
One-page mini lessons—perfect for chart paper or overhead lessons—and companion reproducible writing activities, zero in on improving key writing skills. Covers sentence combining, improving leads, using strong verbs, getting rid of clutter, and more.
One-page mini lessons—perfect for chart paper or overhead lessons—and companion reproducible writing activities, zero in on improving key writing skills. Covers sentence combining, improving leads, using strong verbs, getting rid of clutter, and more.
Paperback
First published July 1, 1999
4 people want to read
About the author
Laura Robb
124 books4 followersAuthor, teacher, coach, and speaker, Laura Robb has completed 43 years of teaching in grades 4-8.
She presently coaches teachers in reading/writing workshop at Powhatan School in Virginia and coaches teachers in grades K-8 in Staunton, Virginia, Long Island, and Ann Arbor, Michigan, and West Nyack, New York.
She presently coaches teachers in reading/writing workshop at Powhatan School in Virginia and coaches teachers in grades K-8 in Staunton, Virginia, Long Island, and Ann Arbor, Michigan, and West Nyack, New York.
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July 21, 2016
Do you need a go-to book with great writing mini-lessons to help develop writing skills? If so, this is a great resource to have on file. As teachers, we understand the importance of a writing mini-lesson. They need to be quick and effective. There are so many strategies out there to help students with each element of writing: craft, style, figurative language, etc. Children need teachers to be explicit and to model those skills. Then the student is able to mimic what their teacher has taught them in their own writing.
This book is suggested for grades 4 and up. It is comprised of three parts. The first part is “Improve Sentence Structure with Writing Style”. This section has 9 mini-lessons. Each lesson addresses different elements in which students struggle when it comes to sentence structure. For example, mini-lesson three is “Don’t Tell Everything, Show your readers”. Each lesson states the purpose for the lesson. The lesson gives: a ‘before’ example, provides revision tips to share with the class on how you can revise your ‘before’ example, a brainstorm box to show other ways to revise the same sentence; and, a final ‘after’ example. The lesson ends with the “Get Students Involved” section. In this section, there is a question that you can ask the students in order to extend what they just learned in the mini-lesson. For this particular lesson the “Get students Involved” section asks: “Why is showing more effective than telling?” and “Why is taking the time to brainstorm helpful?” It even lists possible correct answers to help the teacher to guide the students to further understand the concept.
There are two more parts to this book: “Write Introductions that Grab the Reader” and “Create Strong Images with Figurative Language.” This book has a total of 18 mini-lessons. These lessons are great for introducing a new concept. This would be a great way to start an anchor chart to have around the room. Then, you can extend each lesson with follow-up lessons. These lessons are not provided. Another book, that I suggest that would work well with the lessons in this book, is “Cracking Open the Author’s Craft: Teaching the Art of Writing” by Lester L. Laminack. This book is set up similar to Laura Robb’s, but it uses Mentor Text to show the reader how the writer conveys their message.
Overall, this is a great book to introduce topics and to use as an anchor for upper elementary grades. I think that you could use some of the lessons in younger grades. I feel that the second grade could benefit from the lessons in the first part of the book. The teacher might need to modify the language of the book some; but overall, the lessons are great for sharpening writing skills!
This book is suggested for grades 4 and up. It is comprised of three parts. The first part is “Improve Sentence Structure with Writing Style”. This section has 9 mini-lessons. Each lesson addresses different elements in which students struggle when it comes to sentence structure. For example, mini-lesson three is “Don’t Tell Everything, Show your readers”. Each lesson states the purpose for the lesson. The lesson gives: a ‘before’ example, provides revision tips to share with the class on how you can revise your ‘before’ example, a brainstorm box to show other ways to revise the same sentence; and, a final ‘after’ example. The lesson ends with the “Get Students Involved” section. In this section, there is a question that you can ask the students in order to extend what they just learned in the mini-lesson. For this particular lesson the “Get students Involved” section asks: “Why is showing more effective than telling?” and “Why is taking the time to brainstorm helpful?” It even lists possible correct answers to help the teacher to guide the students to further understand the concept.
There are two more parts to this book: “Write Introductions that Grab the Reader” and “Create Strong Images with Figurative Language.” This book has a total of 18 mini-lessons. These lessons are great for introducing a new concept. This would be a great way to start an anchor chart to have around the room. Then, you can extend each lesson with follow-up lessons. These lessons are not provided. Another book, that I suggest that would work well with the lessons in this book, is “Cracking Open the Author’s Craft: Teaching the Art of Writing” by Lester L. Laminack. This book is set up similar to Laura Robb’s, but it uses Mentor Text to show the reader how the writer conveys their message.
Overall, this is a great book to introduce topics and to use as an anchor for upper elementary grades. I think that you could use some of the lessons in younger grades. I feel that the second grade could benefit from the lessons in the first part of the book. The teacher might need to modify the language of the book some; but overall, the lessons are great for sharpening writing skills!
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