Listening to Young Writers: Developing Writing Competency Through Conversation, Engagement, and Assessment

More children than ever before are entering school with minimal English skills or with a need for specialized instruction. In Listening to Young Writers, author Melissa Landa presents an organized and comprehensive instructional approach to writing instruction that will move every young child to writing competency—especially those in Title I and ELL programs.

Listening to Young Writers asserts that a teacher must begin to teach writing from where the child is along the writing journey, measuring progress against the child’s growth, and not merely against an external standard. It offers practical, classroom-proven strategies and tools that help a teacher identify and develop personalized, "next-step" instructional goals and strategies based on rubrics designed for the primary classroom.

Listening to Young Writers blends the art and science of K-2 writing instruction. Teachers understand why listening to and honoring the voices of young writers is critical to primary writing. With it, they learn how to apply a systematic classroom-proven approach to early writing that integrates effective instructional strategies, meaningful rubrics, and model mini-lessons.