A Quick Guide to Reviving Disengaged Writers, Grades 5-8

Middle schoolers can be the masters of disengagement. Recognizing that all students, adept and struggling writers alike, lose steam at times and need a revitalizing jump start, Christopher Lehman offers effective, developmentally-appropriate fixes for addressing situations that frequently sidetrack or distract adolescent writers.

Organized as a practical on-the-go teaching reference, the first four chapters offer strategies for counteracting commonplace situations that can regularly spring up and disengage middle school writers such as:

• writers who seem to have an almost “allergic” reaction to the writing process
• writers who “cannot possibly find anything to write about”
• writers who “talk, talk, talk the writing time away”
• writers who need constant approval before moving on.

The final chapter offers an inquiry-based study guide that supports teachers in collaborating on and customizing strategies for reviving the disengaged writers in their learning communities.

A Quick Guide to Reviving Disengaged Writers is part of the Workshop Help Desk series.

About the Workshop Help Desk series

The Workshop Help Desk series is designed for teachers who believe in workshop teaching and who have already rolled up their sleeves enough to have encountered the predictable challenges. If you’ve struggled to get around quickly enough to help all your students, if you’ve wondered how to tweak your teaching to make it more effective and lasting, if you’ve needed to adapt your teaching for English learners, if you’ve struggled to teach grammar or nonfiction writing or test prep…if you’ve faced these and other specific, pressing challenges, then this series is for you. Provided in a compact 5" x 7" format, the Workshop Help Desk series offers pocket-sized professional development.

For a comprehensive overview of the Units of Study in Opinion/Argument, Information, and Narrative series, including sample minilessons, sample videos, videos, frequently asked questions and more, visit UnitsofStudy.com.

Christopher Lehman is the Founding Director of The Educator Collaborative, a K-12 Literacy think tank and professional development organization, working to innovate the ways educators learn together.He is an international speaker, literacy consultant, and New York Times best-selling author. He holds degrees from UW-Madison, NYU, and Teachers College, Columbia University. Chris has been a middle-school teacher, high-school teacher, literacy coach, and staff developer. He sits on the Board of Directors of the National Center for Families Learning, is a past Chair of the NCTE Middle Level Section, and past member of the NCTE Executive Committee. He has served as column editor for NCTE's peer-reviewed journal, Voices from the Middle, and his articles and interviews have appeared in many journals and publications including the International Literacy Association's Reading Today, in EdWeek, and in Education SmartBrief. He has supported schools and districts across the United States and around the world in developing robust, research-based, effective literacy curricula and practices. Now with The Educator Collaborative, he is working to innovate the ways literacy educators learn in-person and online, providing professional learning for teachers, coaches, and administrators so students can hold their brightest futures.

Lucy Calkins is the Founding Director of the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project at Columbia University. For more than thirty years, she has led the Project in its dual functions as a think tank, developing state-of-the-art teaching methods, and a provider of professional development, supporting hundreds of thousands of teachers, principals, superintendents, and policy-makers across the country and around the world. Lucy is the author or coauthor - and series editor - of the reading, writing, and phonics Units of Study series, which are integral to classroom life in tens of thousands of schools around the world. In addition, she has authored scores of professional books and articles. Lucy is also the Robinson Professor of Children's Literature at Teachers College, Columbia University, where she co-directs the Literacy Specialist Program. Her latest professional books include Teaching Writing and Leading Well. Visit UnitsofStudy.com Order Resources by Lucy Calkins