New Releases by Ruth Culham

Ask great writers what the key to writing well is and they will tell you revision. Author Ruth Culham, both a successful writer and writing teacher, understands the challenges elementary teachers face when teaching writing and revision and now shares her knowledge in Teach Writing Well: How to Assess Writing, Invigorate Instruction, and Rethink Revision. Divided into two parts, Culham’s book provides ways to teach that are both accessible to the teacher and student. You will find techniques to assess writing that are practical, and results driven. Inside you’ll discover: Culham’s traits of writing and how to use them to read and assess student work Ways to guide revision decisions using these traits as common language How to address challenges students may face within the different modes of writing (narrative, expository, and persuasive) Strategic lessons to teach the writer that scaffold students towards making their own craft decisions A chapter on mentor texts which can be used to model traits and key qualities for your students Teach Writing Well pulls best practices together and shows writing with fresh eyes.

There is power that resides in outstanding culturally diverse literature'sa power that has the potential to engage students in reading and teach them about the art and craft of writing. In Dream Wakers: Mentor Texts That Celebrate Latino Culture, Ruth Culham focuses her love of children's literature'sand her decades of work developing the traits of writing'son books that celebrate Latino life and culture. She provides a wide variety of ideas to teach writing using some of the richest and most beautiful children's books available. Dream Wakers gives you: An annotated list of more than 120 books with do-it-today lesson ideas for teaching the traits of writing'sIdeas, Organization, Voice, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency, and Conventions. More than half of the books listed are bilingual or offer English and/or Spanish editions. Eleven original, insightful essays by renowned children's authors of some of the featured books A handy reference chart that helps teachers locate books quickly by trait, genre, language, and author/publisher information. Ruth encourages all of us to make sure students of all backgrounds have access to high-quality, culturally diverse texts and recognize the difference those texts will make in their reading lives, as well as in their perception of themselves as a thinkers, learners, and citizens.

Culham demonstrates a major part of good writing instruction is finding the right mentor texts to share with students. Within this book, you'll discover more than 90 excellent mentor texts, along with straight-forward activities that incorporate the traits of writing across informational, narrative, and argument modes.

A writing program for grade 6 using "the 6 traits": ideas, sentence fluency, organization, word choice, voice, and conventions.

Effective, easy-to-use tools for trait-based assessment and instruction--just for middle school teachers. Includes printable reproducible forms!

This collection is an annotated bibliography of 150 picture books, chapter books, and young adult novels with teacher-tested lessons to strengthen students' writing in all six traits.

Trait expert Ruth Culham has created a diverse set of papers grades K-2, assessed and annotated them, and designed an interactive whiteboard CD of exemplars so teachers and students can use them as the focus of trait-based writing instruction. The papers are highlighted by key quality for each trait, making it easy for writers to see what works and what doesn't by simply pressing the color-coded buttons at the bottom of each projected paper on the white board. Can be used with overhead projectors as well. For use with Grades 6-8.

Discover practical strategies for supporting and assessing writing instruction in all content areas while equipping teachers with instructional practices that emphasize this critical skill, which students need to adapt to the demands of the CCSS and thrive in the 21st century. This guide offers the pedagogical expertise every administrator needs to serve as an effective leader.

Quick activities for developing writing skills that last a lifetime!

All the tips and tools teachers need to create a writing traits classroom, from the ground up.

Whether your students are just beginning to write or crafting whole sentences, useful, encouraging feedback is essential to their growth. In this guide, Ruth Culham provides over 180 just-right trait-specific comments, plus a K-2 scoring guide for each trait, to help you assess writing. Since primary learners benefit more from oral than written communication, the guide is ideal for use in one-on-one conferences, small groups, and even whole-class instruction. All of Culham's comments are correlated to the scoring guides and based on the five-levels of achievement. Spiral-bound, tabbed for easy access, and printed on sturdy coated paper, this guide is meant for years of use. For use with Grades K-2.

Students use the power of traits to improve their writing.

Provides exercises and demonstrations that target revision skills, covering ideas, organization, voice, word choice, and sentence fluency.

A unique trait-based resource from expert Ruth Culham, this big, informative flip chart is a student-friendly guide to the traits--ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions. For each trait, you'll find a definition, writing tips, a scoring rubric, and two model essays (low- and high-scoring samples). The large print and oversize pages make it perfect for mini-lessons, small-group work, conferences, and more. The ideal companion to any trait-based writing classroom. For use with Grades 3-5.

"This highly practical resource can be used on its own or as a companion to 6+1 traits of writing: the complete guide for the primary grades"--Page 4 of cover.

Describes the traits of good writing in any genre and includes information on assessing student writing skills, lesson planning, and activities.

Provides thirty-two trait-focused lessons based on specific picture books along with two hundred annotations of both new and classic books.

Assessing and teaching the most important qualities of good writing has never been easier.Ideas, Organization, Voice, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency, Conventions, and Presentation. Look at good writing in any genre, and you'll find these traits. Think of them as the fuel that stokes the engine of writing. With this book, teachers will learn how to assess student work for these traits and plan instruction. And they'll be amazed at how the writing in their classroom improves. Includes scoring guides, focus lessons, and activities for teaching each trait. For use with Grades 3 & Up.;Assessing and teaching the most important qualities of good writing has never been easier. ;The 6+1 Traits of Writing model is used throughout the United States and the world. It has become a highly respected, essential tool for evaluating student writing and planning instruction. Its primary author, Ruth Culham, is unit manager for the assessment program at Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NWREL) in Portland, Oregon. As the recognized expert in 6+1 Traits of Writing model, she conducts workshops, designs institutes, writes extensively on the topic. Prior to joining NWREL, Ruth was a classroom teacher for 19 years.

Checklists, graphic organizers, rubrics and scoring sheets and more to boost students' writing skills in all seven traits.

The R.A.F.T.S. technique provides students with the baseline information they need to focus their writing: a Role from which to write, an Audience to address, a Format in which to write, a Topic about which to write and a Strong verb that suggests the purpose of the writing.

The R.A.F.T.S. technique provides students with the baseline information they need to focus their writing: a Role from which to write, an Audience to address, a Format in which to write, a Topic about which to write and a Strong verb that suggests the purpose of the writing.

Uses the 6-trait (ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions) analytical model to help students learn to assess and revise writing.

This manual is a guide to the creation of a student portfolio.