Synopses & Reviews
When first published in 1987, this seminal work was widely hailed for its honest examination of how teachers teach, how students learn, and the gap that lies in between. In depicting her own classroom struggles, Nancie Atwell shook our orthodox assumptions about skill-and-drill-based curriculums and became a pioneer of responsive teaching. Now, in the long awaited second edition, Atwell reflects on the next ten years of her experience, rethinks and clarifies old methods, and demonstrates new, more effective approaches.
The second edition still urges educators to "come out from behind their own big desks" to turn classrooms into workshops where students and teachers create curriculums together. But it also advocates a more activist role for teachers. Atwell writes, "I'm no longer willing to withhold suggestions and directions from my kids when I can help them solve a problem, do something they've never done before, produce stunning writing, and ultimately become more independent of me."
More than 70 percent of the material is new, with six brand-new chapters on genres, evaluation, and the teacher as writer. There are also lists of several hundred minilessons, and scripts and examples for teaching them; new expectations and rules for writing and reading workshops; ideas for teaching conventions; new systems for record keeping; lists of essential books for students and teachers; and forms for keeping track of individual spelling, skills, proofreading, homework, writing, and reading.
The second edition of In the Middle is written in the same engaging style as its predecessor. It reads like a story - one that readers will be pleased to learn has no end. As Atwell muses, "I know my students and I will continue to learn and be changed. I am resigned - happily - to be always beginning for the rest of my life as a teacher."
Review
The best way to teach is to learn together with the students. One of the rare breed of teachers who do know this is Nancie Atwell.The New York Times
Review
Reading this book can be revolutionary. . . . Atwell leads us to new understandings of teaching and learning in a workshop classroom.Voices from the Middle
Synopsis
With the first edition of In the Middle, Nancie Atwell shook our orthodox assumptions and became a pioneer of responsive teaching. Now, in this second edition, Atwell reflects on the next ten years of her experience, rethinks and clarifies old methods, and demonstrates new, more effective approaches.
More than 70 percent of the material is new, with six brand-new chapters on genres, evaluation, and the teacher as writer. There are also lists of several hundred minilessons, and scripts and examples for teaching them; new expectations and rules for writing and reading workshops; new ideas for teaching conventions; new systems for record keeping; lists of essential books for students and teachers; and forms for keeping track of individual spelling, skills, proofreading, homework, writing, and reading.
Synopsis
With the first edition of In the Middle, Nancie Atwell shook our orthodox assumptions and became a pioneer of responsive teaching. Now, in this second edition, Atwell reflects on the next ten years of her experience, rethinks and clarifies old methods, and demonstrates new, more effective approaches. More than 70 percent of the material is new, with six brand-new chapters on genres, evaluation, and the teacher as writer. There are also lists of several hundred minilessons, and scripts and examples for teaching them; new expectations and rules for writing and reading workshops; new ideas for teaching conventions; new systems for record keeping; lists of essential books for students and teachers; and forms for keeping track of individual spelling, skills, proofreading, homework, writing, and reading. Contents: 1. Always Beginning 1. Learning How to Teach Writing 2. Learning How to Teach Reading 3. Making the Best of Adolescence II. Writing and Reading Workshop 4. Getting Ready 5. Getting Started 6. Minilessons 7. Responding to Writers and Writing 8. Responding to Readers and Reading 9. Valuing and Evaluating III. Teaching with a Capital "T" 10. Taking Off the Top of My Head 11. Call Home the Child: Memoir 12. Hanging with Big Sis: Fiction 13. Finding Poetry Everywhere 14. Taking Care of Business
Synopsis
Nancie Atwell reflects on the ten years of her teaching experience since writing the first edition of the seminal work, In the Middle.
Synopsis
When first published in 1987, this seminal work was widely hailed for its honest examination of how teachers teach, how students learn, and the gap that lies in between. In depicting her own classroom struggles, Nancie Atwell shook our orthodox assumptions about skill-and-drill-based curriculums and became a pioneer of responsive teaching. Now, in the long awaited second edition, Atwell reflects on the next ten years of her experience, rethinks and clarifies old methods, and demonstrates new, more effective approaches.
About the Author
Nancie Atwell is one of the most highly respected educators in the U.S. Her classic In the Middle, now in its third edition, has inspired generations of teachers. Visit Heinemann.com/InTheMiddle for exclusive blogs from Nancie about the third edition. Systems to Transform Your Classroom and School takes you inside her school to see what innovations have made the biggest impact on learning schoolwide, while her DVDs Writing in the Middle and Reading in the Middle give us a seat in her writing and reading workshops to see firsthand how she helps students become independent, sophisticated readers and writers. Nancie is also the author of classroom materials through Firsthand. Lessons that Change Writers is a year's worth of instruction straight from Nancie's file cabinets, while Naming the World helps teachers jumpstart their literacy teaching each day the way Nancie does - with poetry, the mother genre. Nancie taught seventh- and eighth-grade writing, reading, and history at the Center for Teaching and Learning, a K - 8 demonstration school she founded in Edgecomb, Maine, in 1990. Nancie was the first classroom teacher to receive the NCTE David H. Russell Award and the MLA Mina P. Shaughnessy Prize for distinguished research in the teaching of English. Nancie was recently named 2010 Teacher of the Year by River of Words; a California-based non-profit educational organization and also received an honorary degree from the University of New Hampshire during its 2011 commencement ceremony. Read Nancie's Education Week article in which she makes the case for literature in the core standards. To see and hear Nancie's response to the NY Times article on the place of student choice in reading, click here. Read the Article »
Table of Contents
Always Beginning
Learning How to Teach Writing
Learning How to Teach Reading
Making the Best of Adolescence
Writing and Reading Workshop
Getting Ready
Getting Started
Minilessons
Responding to Writers and Writing
Responding to Readers and Reading
Valuing and Evaluating
Teaching with a Capital "T"
Taking Off the Top of My Head
Call Home the Child: Memoir
Hanging with Big Sis: Fiction
Finding Poetry Everywhere
Taking Care of Business
Appendixes:
A. Materials for Writing, Reading, and Publishing
B. Ways Student Writers Can Go Public
C. Kinds of Writing That Emerge in Writing Workshop
D. Writing Survey
E. Reading Survey
F. Student Writing Record/Sample Record
G. Student Reading Record/Sample Record
H. Personal Spelling List/Sample List
Weekly Word Study/Sample Study
J. Peer Writing Conference Record
K. Editing Checksheet
L. Favorite Adolescent Literature
M. Favorite Collections of Poetry
N. Quotes for the Walls of a Writing-Reading Workshop
O. Final Self-Evaluation of Writing and Reading
P. Weekly Homework Assignment Sheet
Q. Recommended Resources for Teachers of Middle School Writing, Reading, and Literature