Revision is often a confusing and difficult process for students, but it's also the most important part of the writing process. If students leave our classrooms not knowing how to move a piece of writing forward, we've failed them. Revision Decisions will help teachers develop the skills students need in an ever-evolving writing, language, and reading world. Jeff Anderson and Deborah Dean have written a book that engages writers in the tinkering, playing, and thinking that are essential to clarify and elevate writing.
Focusing on sentences, Jeff and Deborah use mentor texts to show the myriad possibilities that exist for revision. Essential to their process is the concept of classroom talk. Readers will be shown how revision lessons can be discussed in a generative way, and how each student can benefit from talking through the revision process as a group. Revision Decisions focuses on developing both the writing and the writer. The easy-to-follow lessons make clear and accessible the rigorous thinking and the challenging process of making writing work. Narratives, setup lessons, templates, and details about how to move students toward independence round out this essential book. Additionally, the authors weave the language, reading, and writing goals of the Common Core and other standards into an integrated and connected practice.
The noted language arts teacher James Britton once said that good writing "floats on a sea of talk." Revision Decisions supports those genuine conversations we naturally have as readers and writers, leading the way to the essential goal of making meaning.
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Author Bio
For the past 25 years, Jeff Anderson has worked with writers and teachers of grades, K-12, inspiring them about the power and joy of the writing process. Jeff is known for his enthusiasm in making grammar, editing, and writing a positive experience for teachers and students. He has written five books for Stenhouse Publishers: Mechanically Inclined, Everyday Editing, 10 Things Every Writer Needs to Know, Revision Decisions and his latest professional book Patterns of Power. He also has two middle grade novels, Zack Delacruz: Me and My Big Mouth and Zack Delacruz: Just My Luck. A frequent presenter at national and state conferences, Jeff is a full-time staff developer and writer.
Deborah Dean taught junior high and high school in Washington before beginning her work with pre-service teachers at Brigham Young University. She currently works with teachers and directs the Central Utah Writing Project. She always enjoyed teaching writing and helping her students to discover themselves as writers.
Deborah received her bachelor's degree in English from Brigham Young University, her M.Ed. degree from City University and her Ed.D. degree from Seattle Pacific University.