List Books » Crunchtime: Lessons to Help Students Blow the Roof Off Writing Tests--and Become Better Writers in the Process
Authors: Gretchen S. Bernabei, Jayne Hover, Cynthia Candler, Jeff Anderson
ISBN-13: 9780325026732, ISBN-10: 0325026734
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Heinemann
Date Published: August 2009
Edition: (Non-applicable)
In her newest book, Crunchtime, Gretchen Bernabei and her coauthors Jayne Hover and Cynthia Candler share with you the strategies they have developed for helping students be successful in the literate world and on the writing tests. Growing out of their own work in Title I schools, Gretchen, Jayne, and Cynthia's strategies have proven to be especially effective in helping ESL and special education students. Gretchen Bernabei has taught middle school and high school for 28 years. An author and an educator, Gretchen's other books include, Why We Must Run with Scissors: Voice Lessons in Persuasive Writing (2001, Discover Writing Press), Reviving the Essay: How to Teach Structure Without Formula (2005, Discover Writing Press), Lightning in a Bottle (2003, Trail of Breadcrumbs), Sparklers: High Scoring Test Essays and What We Learn from Them (2007, Trail of Breadcrumbs), The Good Writer's Guide (2006, Hampton-Brown/National Geographic School Publications) and a chapter in Teaching "The Neglected R" (2007, Heinemann). She currently lives with her husband and two children in San Antonio, Texas.
In her new book, Crunchtime, Jayne Hover and her coauthors Gretchen Bernabei and Cynthia Candler share with you the strategies they have developed for helping students be successful in the literate world and on the writing tests. Growing out of their own work in Title I schools, Gretchen, Jayne, and Cynthia's strategies have proven to be especially effective in helping ESL and special education students. A teacher for more than twenty years, Jayne currently teaches 4th grade at Hawthorne Academy and lives with her best friend and husband in Cibolo, Texas.
In her new book, Crunchtime, Cynthia Candler and her coauthors Gretchen Bernabei and Jayne Hover share with you the strategies they have developed for helping students be successful in the literate world and on the writing tests. Growing out of their own work in Title I schools, Gretchen, Jayne, and Cynthia's strategies have proven to be especially effective in helping ESL and special education students. Cynthia has taught writing in the middle grades for over 20 years and currently is teaching 7th grade in Terrell, Texas
In this eagerly-anticipated teacher resource, master teachers Gretchen Bernabei, Jayne Hover, and Cynthia Candler share writing lessons that are healthy for kids, promote lifelong literacy, and, coincidentally, will help your students blow the roof off of their state test scores. Organized around the writing process selecting topics, crafting drafts, and polishing finished pieces explicit lessons engage student writers while shoring up the gaps between learning and testing. Growing out of their own work in Title I schools, Gretchen, Jayne, and Cynthia s strategies have proven to be especially effective in helping ESL and special education students, not only pass the test, but achieve commended performance. In addition to providing classroom-tested strategies, this practical teaching resource provides a wealth of crunchtime tools (rubrics, reproducibles, and writing samples) minilessons, and lesson plans that will help you teach strategically and position your students for success on their state writing tests and beyond.
Foreword ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction Gretchen Bernabei xvii
The Thermometer Rubric xvii
Sharing Within the Profession xviii
Two Teachers Jayne Hover Cynthia Candler xviii
But Shouldn't Test Writing Be the Same as Real Writing? xix
Knowing the Research xx
Part 1 From Idea to Draft (Gretchen's Story) 1
Chapter 1 Selecting a Topic 7
Levels of Personal Experience 7
The Quicklist 14
Student Spotlight Guadalupe 22
Chapter 2 Organizing and Prewriting Structures 24
The Talking List 24
Writing a Kernel Essay with Text Structures 28
The Flipbook 36
The Fake Flipbook 54
Student Spotlight Esequiel 59
Part 2 Revision and Development (Cynthia's Story) 61
Chapter 3 Writing with Style 65
Expanding a Sentence: Revision Stations 65
Telling the Story, Asking Questions 73
The F.I.T. Chart 77
Sparkling Sentences 84
Truisms with Picture Prompts 88
Ba-da-bing Sentences 98
Student Spotlight William 102
Chapter 4 The Devil's in the Details 104
Great Beginnings 104
Common Mistakes and Quick Fixes 109
Preparing the Final Copy 112
Part 3 Crunchtime Tools and Minilessons (Jayne's Story: Teaching Writing or Teaching Testing?) 115
Chapter 5 Countdown to the Test 121
KISS (Keep It Surprisingly Simple): The Concept 121
KISS Lesson Plans for Writing 123
Chapter 6 Minilessons with High-Scoring Student Papers 130
Appendix
Research on Foundations of Effective Writing Instruction 137
Beliefs and Experiences 139
Student Chart for Brainstorming "Bank Experiences" 141
Student Topic Lists 142
Quicklists for Other Genres 144
Connecting Life Experiences to Life Truths 146
A Memory Chart 147
The Story of My Thinking Chart147
Evolution of a Term Chart 147
Discovering a Lie Chart 147
Tribute to a Person Who Taught Me Something 148
Backfire Chart 148
Metamorphosis Chart 148
Cause and Effect Chart 148
Expository, I-Search, and Literary Analysis Text Structures 149
Sample Pages of a Flipbook 150
Revision Stations 151
Cause and Effect (If...Then...) 152
Student Self-Check Flipbook 153
Student Self-Check Flipbook Final Copy 154
Scoring Guide 155
The Fake Flipbook 156
Where's the BEEF? 158
F.I.T. Chart 159
KISS Lesson Plan 160
Writer's Toolbox 161
Minilessons 162
Works Cited 165