The Inside Guide to the Reading-Writing Classroom, Grades 3-6 ― Strategies for Extraordinary Teaching

"These are the tried and true lessons I return to year after year. The lessons that students said made a difference in their writing and that will bring power and beauty to your students' writing and to your writing classroom."

-Leslie Blauman

"What's wrong with a little mentorship?" Leslie Blauman asks. Reap the benefits of her years as a Public Education and Business Coalition (PEBC) teacher with 31 of her best kid-tested and approved lessons that lead to great student writing. Not only are these research-based writing lessons kids' self-proclaimed favorites, they incorporate mentor texts, support the Common Core State Standards, and are research-based.

Four lesson clusters reflect Leslie's core beliefs for teaching:

• writing narratives, informative texts, and opinion pieces/arguments
• a love of language, word play, vocabulary, and poetry
• writing fictional narratives
• writing research-based nonfiction.

Use these generative lessons as a springboard-giving them your personal stamp-and watch as they lead to great writing for authentic purposes and in testing situations.

A Colorado teacher for more than 25 years, Leslie Blauman's classroom is a model site for staff development in reading, writing, and thinking through the Denver-based Public Education and Business Coalition (PEBC). She is a state and national literacy consultant; has presented at IRA, NCTE, and CCIRA. Leslie is coauthor of the Heinemann title Comprehension Going Forward and the author of Kid-Tested Writing Lessons for Grades 3-6 and The Inside Guide to the Reading-Writing Classroom, Grades 3-6.