More about Writing

Teaching young adolescent students to read, write, and talk intelligently about writing need not be the overwhelming task it poses for new to middle school teachers. They may be recent graduates or experienced teachers transitioning from elementary or high school classrooms. Moreover, designing lessons for which students write regularly for real purposes, but will not overburden the teacher with grading often swamps early career educators and veterans alike. These teachers will find in this book accounts of specific ways to establish a nurturing classroom environment with grading guidelines that are firm and fair; for designing writing assignments that include specific steps to adapt or adopt to fit their own student population, with samples of formative and summative assessments to measure student growth in writing; for selecting mentor texts that are culturally relevant serving both as inspiration and patterns for students from various cultural, ethnic, and economic regions across the nation.

In More about Writing: Designing Student Assignments with Specific Steps (2018), Anna Roseboro provides both novice and veteran educators with innovative, practical tools for engaging students. She provides sensitive insights into concerns with unique approaches to methods and materials English Language Arts teachers will use throughout their careers. Roseboro reinforces, in a conversational and personable manner, that learning is an ever-changing process that we as professionals share with our students. Through participation along with instruction, her clearly designed and organized chapters make teaching and learning experiences shared adventures. Who knew teaching could be so much fun?, More about Writing: Designing Student Assignments with Specific Steps (MAW) by Anna J. Small Roseboro is an outstanding teacher’s information source on fresh new ideas for teaching writing in today’s classroom.  It offers innovative techniques to help students develop strategies for thinking and writing. The chapters have grading and rubric ideas so that you are not burdened with correcting papers. This resource can give classroom teachers effective ways to reach students from every grade level and cognitive aptitude.  As a teacher who has taught over nineteen years, I highly recommend this book if you want to make a difference in improving your students’ writing skills, save time with planning, and organizing you time with students. The best part of the book reminds me how important it is that good teachers should remember to inspire students by sharing their work as well as their experiences. It really would suit English teachers everywhere to have a copy!, More About Writing is an excellent teacher support tool. Each chapter is packed with relevant and targeted resources that can help a teacher do a great job with his/her students. Anna has found a way to bring together a healthy balance between her personal experiences and content knowledge to teach us about fostering a community of writers. She offers us key strategies for helping students practice the dominant English in this country, while not undermining students' home languages in “Chapter 3- Explore Grammars.” That work is important and necessary. I hope that all teachers are encouraged to read that chapter and think about taking into consideration the multiple grammars and ways of speaking that exist in our country in their practice. It's an important aspect of being an equitable and anti-biased educator. Her wide and deep experience on teaching poetry, non-fiction, and speeches is a rich resource for any teacher. I highly recommend this book for new teachers as well as veterans. We are always learning and Anna has so much to teach us., Anna Roseboro’s More about Writing is a comprehensive and effective guide to writing pedagogy. Her book is a text I definitely will use. Whether you are a veteran or a novice writing teacher, Roseboro’s storytelling approach will provide you with the wise advice you need to cultivate a writing community as well as the “how-to” on preparing and instructing the first few days of your writing classroom. Additionally, More about Writing is filled with practical artifacts writing teachers can use throughout the school year, including suggestions for scoring rubrics that are genre-specific!

Anna J. Small Roseboro, a National Board Certified Teacher has over four decades experience teaching in public and private schools, mentoring early career educators, facilitating leadership institutes. She was awarded Distinguished Service Awards by the California Association of Teachers of English and the National Council of Teachers of English.