In the Middle, Third Edition

In the Middle: What is the 80% new material? Those who have relied on the second edition of In the Middle, have asked us whether they really need to get the third edition. So we asked one of our crackerjack editors to read the second and third editions and report on the new content so that we could share it with you. Her report: fans of the second edition will be missing out if they don’t read the new edition.

Here is our editor’s full report:

Nancie remains true to her ideals and the workshop approach. Readers of the second edition of In the Middle will recognize the basic workshop elements and find Nancie Atwell's respect for teaching middle schoolers undimmed. Additional years of experience have yielded her new insights into students’ writing and reading and produced improvements in how best to develop middle school learners.

PART I, Workshop Essentials

• More how-tos: e.g. dialogue to model check-ins that are brisk and brief, topics to teach in memoir, details on how to fit writing-reading workshop into 85-minute blocks or 50-minute periods, minilessons on teaching free-verse poetry
• The Daily Poem and Icebreaking: In the "Getting Started" chapter these are now specifically named and described in depth. In the second edition, these workshop routines received limited description. Now Nancie’s Daily Poem routine and early-year Icebreaking is given much more depth.
• More about reading workshop: Nancie gives reading workshop more importance in the third edition.
• She has shifted her emphasis from how she developed reading workshop to the specifics of running the workshop and its benefits for students
• Expectations for reading workshop are detailed, including using critical vocabulary, keeping a "someday" list in writing-reading handbook, and writing a letter essay every three weeks
• Red flags of writing: The chapter "Responding to Writers and Writing" has been almost completely revised and now features twelve new "red flags" of writing culled from Nancie’s many years of reading student writing. Each red flag is named and suggestions are given for conferring with writers to head them in a better direction
• Letter-essays: Nancie has replaced her well-known weekly letters in the "Responding to Readers and Reading" chapter with letter-essays that students write every three weeks. She shows how these letteressays, which are about books a reader has finished, reflect her evolving thinking about providing a bridge to expository writing while also easing the paper load.
• Handover: This concept has been has been expanded beyond writing to encompass reading workshop and to prepare students to write their letter-essays.
• Off-the-page writing: A new concept introduced in the third edition is a way of inserting time and reflection into writing.

Part II, Genre Studies

• New emphasis and minilessons on poetry: Vastly revamped because of its increasing importance to her teaching, the "Poetry" chapter details why it is the first genre Nancie’s students write in and why it is the basis for many of the craft writing lessons. Free-verse is the "workhorse form of poetry," and there are eight minilessons that teach free-verse poetry and its conventions
• More specificity about memoirs: Expanded with more specific and intentional teaching recommendations, "Memoir" now integrates reading and listening to memoirs as models for writing them. In the second edition, there are only lists of memoir titles. The third edition also provides more specific elements of memoir to teach: leads, sensory details, dialogue, balancing elements, time transition, conclusions, and reading as a critic
• Micro fiction: Another major innovation is micro fiction replacing the short story in Nancie’s "Short Fiction" chapter. Much of students’ short story writing was "unmemorable and formulaic" or "heavyhanded and predictable." Short-short fiction helps concentrate the lessons of fiction and "is the genre to hand over to middle school writers of fiction."
• New details on expository writing: "Taking Care of Business" narrows the focus to four of the types of expository writing found in the second edition, but each one is now presented with more specifics, structure, and examples in its own section
• "Humor and Homage": A brand new chapter to the book that supports not only writing but also close reading and the writer’s craft: "Parody and homage stretch students not just as writers but as readers and critics, too. To lampoon someone else’s writing requires close reading, attention to detail and tone, and understanding of theme. It may well be the ultimate form of literary analysis."
• New student writing samples: All new samples reflect more recent books and topics

Nancie has essentially given us a new book because her teaching continues to change, and because she seeks innovation each day. If you’ve read the previous edition, don’t miss out on her latest practices.

VIDEO 1 - Readers for the Summer... and Life

VIDEO 2 - Student Self-Evaluation with Parents

VIDEO 3 - Conferring with a Writer

VIDEO 4 - Nancie Listens as Students Generate Topics

VIDEO 5 - Helping Students Discover Topics

VIDEO 6 - Sharing Workshop Expectations with Writers

VIDEO 7 - Student Book Talk About "To Kill a Mockingbird"

VIDEO 8 - Conferring with a Reader

VIDEO 9 - Conferring Draws Out Readers' Critical Thinking

VIDEO 10 - Removing the Mystery From Reading Conferences

VIDEO 11 - Nancie's Poetry Mini-Lesson

VIDEO 12 - Launching Daily Poetry

VIDEO 13 - Choice-The Beating Heart of Curriculum

VIDEO 14 - The Satisfaction of Teaching with Writing Workshop

VIDEO 15 - Choice for Readers is Essential

VIDEO 16 - Nancie's First-Day Organizing Checklist

VIDEO 17 - On the Importance of Being Organized

VIDEO 18 - What's On Nancie's Classroom Walls

"This classic has been reworked with over 80% new material, but one thing remains unchanged: Nancie Atwell has created a masterpiece that walks readers through the intricacies of successfully teaching middle schoolers about reading and writing."
—Jenni Miller, middleweb