The Art of Teaching Reading

This book is helpful for anyone working with children's literacy. Ideas are very clearly expressed and explained.

Lucy McCormick Calkins', The Art of Teaching Writing is an essential read to teachers of writing in any grade, but especially for the primary and middle levels. This book is also helpful for new teachers as well as veterans. Teaching writing to the primary and middle school grades can be a challenge, but the instruction she gives and the creativity of her ideas create an exciting guide for any teacher. As someone who plans to teach at the middle school level, I found many of Calkins' suggestions to be very useful. Throughout the book, Calkins shows the need for meaning in writing and living our lives as writers, and demonstrating this to our students. Her ideas for the Writer's Notebook will allow the students a creative way of noticing the world around them as only a writer can. By giving the students an outlet to get out everything they want to say, they will begin to live the lives of writers. Calkins stresses that students need to feel like authors to truly take ownership and be excited about their writing; she emphasizes the need for specific writing environments made to inspire and evoke emotion in the writer. These environments consist of cardboard desk separators decorated to each writer's own unique taste. Personal items and quotations may be used to cure any student of the dreaded writer's block. Allowing the students to become the teachers is just another inventive way Calkins explains in order to allow them to flourish and grow as writers. She puts great importance on seeing and respecting every idea a students have. She realizes that teachers are students as well, and any idea, whether it comes from the teacher or the pupil, can be immensely inspiring. These are just a few of her techniques, though she offers many more throughout the book. Genre studies, poetry, creative nonfiction, Mini-Lessons and conferences are just a few more ideas she touches upon in great depth. By instructing teachers on how we can improve the writing environment for our young, impressionable students and explaining various methods in which to do so, Calkins' book is truly ground-breaking for anyone who wants to truly inspire their students to love writing. Any new or seasoned teacher of writing needs to read this book and even veteran teachers can take something away from the fresh look she gives us on the topic. It will open your eyes to all the possibilities there are in teaching writing!

I read the first page of this book sitting on the floor of a book store. The next thing I knew it was 30 minutes later, and I didn't want to put the book down. I knew it needed to go home with me. Calkins takes Reading instruction, breaks it down into manageable parts that she used in her own classroom and shares with you realistic, artful and purposeful ideas for teaching reading. She speaks very openly and honestly with you as a teacher who believes in teaching reading not as a science, but rather as an art. It is an amazing book that will transform the way you think about reading instruction even in simple ways. You will love reading it and want to apply her teaching strategies immediately.

I have been a teacher for just a few years and I am currently working on my master's degree. I wanted to know more about the process approach to reading and writing so I approached my professor. She loaned me a brand new copy of this book. I found Calkins the most useful information in forming an understanding of Reading Workshop. Calkins even has a section that gives tips on how to acquire more books for your school. This book is invaluable!

This book was used in the two summer sessions of the Colorado Writing Project that I have taken. It is geared more towards elementary teachers, yet I teach middle school & have learned so much from Calkins. It gives great scenarios of teachers not giving proper feedback to child writers & gives examples of what is better. As teachers, we know that even constructive criticism is not always taken well by children. Calkins knows it's hard to teach writing without the criticism, but she helps us learn to conference better with our kids. Being able to say the write thing(pun intended) at the right time is crucial. The book reteaches the stages of writing and gives hundreds of samples of student writing. It's a great book to go along with the book What A Writer Needs. Also, Calkins just came out with The Art of Teaching Reading...I just got a copy & can't wait to have the same great experience as I have had with The Art of Teaching Writing. Of course, these are books we are done reading...never done learning!