What a Writer Needs

The work of Donald Graves, Lucy Calkins, Donald Murray, Nancie Atwell, and others has led to a whole generation of writing process workshops where children write, share, revise, and publish their work with confidence. But such progress raises problems, and teachers today have a number of new concerns, mainly: Now that my students are writing, how do I help them improve?

What a Writer Needs answers these concerns. In engaging, anecdotal prose, Ralph Fletcher provides a wealth of specific, practical strategies for challenging and extending student writing. There are chapters on details, the use of time, voice, character, beginnings and endings, among others. The work of student and professional writers is sprinkled throughout the book, and a generous appendix of useful picture books and novels is also provided.

In What a Writer Needs, Ralph Fletcher brings important perspectives and ideas that are well-grounded in classroom experience. The book is for writing teachers as well as teachers who write, and with its thorough exploration of literary techniques it will also be useful and appealing to reading teachers. As Donald Murray writes in the Foreword, the author "builds sturdy bridges from the writer's studio to the elementary and middle school classroom."

Ralph Fletcher is a nationally known educational consultant and speaker. He is the author of What A Writer Needs, Walking Trees: Teaching Teachers in the New York City Schools, and Breathing In, Breathing Out: Keeping a Writer's Notebook, all from Heinemann. His short stories and articles have appeared in Redbook, People, Cosmopolitan, and the Wall Street Journal, and he has published his third book of poetry, I Am Wings (Bradbury Press, 1994). He has worked with teachers and children across the United States, in Europe, and in the Middle East. He spent three years as a senior member of the Teachers College Writing Project in New York City involved with staff development. Ralph's talks are humorous, anecdotal, and practical. His work with teachers has its roots in his classroom experience as well as his own writing. He has the utmost respect for the difficult, important job teachers have in helping students find their voices for the writing that will shape their lives.