Table of Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction xi
Chapter 1 Responsive Teaching in the Writing Workshop 1
Why Make Adjustments Within a Unit of Study? 2
Chapter 2 Organizing Your Teaching into Units of Study 7
Why Units of Study Matter 8
Types of Units: Genre-Specific and Non-Genre-Specific 9
Why Project Units of Study? 12
Balancing Teacher Direction with Student Inquiry 13
Building Opportunities for Incremental, Individualized Learning Throughout Unit Projection 14
Chapter 3 Projecting a Unit of Study: A Process Overview 16
The Importance of Having a Process 17
Projecting a Unit of Study: The Steps of the Process 17
Working with the Projection Template 21
Chapter 4 What Should I Teach? Choosing Units of Study 24
Critical and Possible Units 24
The Big Picture: What Influences Unit Choice? 27
Making Decisions: Choosing Which Units You'll Teach Across the Year 33
Flexibility is Key 37
Naming Units 40
Chapter 5 Studying Mentor Texts and Projecting Teaching Possibilities 45
Why Study a Stack of Texts? 46
Gathering a Stack 48
Studying Your Texts and Noticing Teaching Possibilities 56
Chapter 6 Determining Primary and Secondary Goals 70
Primary Goals 71
Secondary Goals 74
Determining the Difference Between Primary and Secondary Goals 80
Goals Evolve Throughout the Projecting Process 81
Using Primary and Secondary Goals as the Foundation for Assessment 81
Chapter 7 Projecting Minilessons and Anticipating Issues 89
Projecting Minilesson Topics 90
Writing Conferences 97
Anticipated Issues 98
What's Next? 100
Chapter 8 Responding and Reflecting During and After a Unit of Study 100
Making Responsive Changes Throughout the Unit 110
Reflecting on the Unit 113
Conclusion 128
Appendix A Possible Units of Study 130
Appendix B Unit of Study Projection Template 135
Appendix C Critical and Possible Units of Study 137
Appendix D Resources for Understanding the Qualities of Good Writing 138
Appendix E Resources for Reading Like a Writer 139
Appendix F Celebrations 140
Children's Books Cited 141
Bibliography 142
About the Authors 145