—Mary Ehrenworth
Author of The Power of Grammar
Are Chantal Francois and Elisa Zonana’s students like yours? Economically, linguistically, and culturally diverse; excited to write; yet underprepared for the kinds of writing demanded in middle school and beyond? Don’t be daunted. Francois and Zonana found a solution, and in Catching Up on Conventions they share lessons that help kids quickly master Standard English grammar.
Catching Up on Conventions will make a difference in your writing workshop and in your middle schoolers’ lives. With Catching Up on Conventions and its annotated lesson plans, you’ll:
- make key grammatical rules explicit and scaffold learning through highly structured, tightly focused lessons
- strengthen students’ narrative and expository writing
- give students specific tools for editing and revising
- support code-switching between the language students use outside the classroom and Standard English.
Francois and Zonana designed Catching Up on Conventions to be easy for you to implement and highly effective. It raises students’ awareness of Standard English grammar with:
- targeted lessons that slide into even the most packed curriculum.
- teaching based on widely recognized best practices that are proven to work.
- suggestions for instructional language and assessment practices that empower linguistic choice rather than “correct” or devalue the language skills students bring to school.
