THE BEST Writing Book!

I was talking about this book with a colleague the other day.  More like singing its praises.  It was then that I thought I needed to share this resource with my blog friends.  If you teach intermediate grade writers, YOU WANT THIS BOOK!  The title of this gem is Razzle Dazzle Writing: Achieving Excellence Through 50 Target Skills by Melissa Forney.

I love this book!  It is so on-target with the skills it covers and so appropriate for intermediate grade writers.  This book is perfect for 3rd grade through middle school.  If I don't tell you another thing about it, you should just go buy the book because it is selling on Amazon.com for a very cheap $13.57!  Honestly, I would quickly pay at least twice that for this book without blinking.  Ms. Forney also has a sister book for the K-2 set called Primary Pizzazz Writing.  I haven't seen it in person, but it looks like a winner.

The pages of Razzle Dazzle Writing are meant to be copied for your friends and used as a teaching and reference tool.  Here is a checklist from the book that notes the 50 skills covered:

As you can see, the topic lend themselves to your everyday teaching throughout the year. However, this book is also great for test prep.  Ugghhhh!  I hate to even utter those words, but they are a fact of life for us these days. Let me be clear though that Ms. Forney is very clear in the book that it's not all about the writing prompt.  She does state that our friends need to know the difference between prompted writing and free writing.  I also believe this.  As much as we would like our friends to embrace writing and freely write as they are inspired, the reality is when the state test comes they are going to be directed via a prompt to do a very specific type of writing.   I used the mini lessons in this book to create an anchor chart on understanding the different types of prompts:

 And, here is another chart I created using one of Melissa Forney's lessons on using a "writing glove" to help your friends properly address narrative prompts.

Sigh!  Just noticed that I spelled dilemma incorrectly on the chart.  Will be fixing that in class ASAP.  Sorry about that!

Ms. Forney has great ideas for this mini lesson.  The book even includes reproducible gloves for your friends to cut out and put on a stick.  The creation of these two anchor charts is directly inspired, if not copied, right from Razzle Dazzle Writing.  I tweaked a bit for my friends, but the book is so well put together you can essentially photocopy what you need and do your lesson with minimal prep.

Razzle Dazzle Writing includes tons of pages you can copy for your friends to keep as reference, there are also poems and reader's theater scripts that are included to reinforce many of the lessons.  The poems are fun and easily understandable for your friends.  The reader's theater scripts get right to the point in a fun way , yet they are short enough to be done as part of a mini lesson.  I have yet to find anything in this book that isn't a perfect fit for my friends.

Melissa Forney has an incredible web site where you can learn more about her books and philosophy.  Click HERE to be taken to Forney Educational, Inc.   There are also free downloads available on the site.  THIS PDF DOWNLOAD is for a booklet titled Young Writer's Survival Guide.  It is an excellent resource for your friends.  Many of the topics in this guide are topics covered in more depth as different mini lessons in Razzle Dazzle Writing.  That PDF alone should convince you to buy the book!

So, have I gushed enough?  I hope so!  This is not a paid endorsement.  This is a post on a book that I find myself going back to again and again and think you will, too.  If you know this book, please share your thoughts.  If you end up getting this book, let us know how you like it.

On a totally different topic, every time I think of the name of this book, it makes me think of this scene from the movie Stripes with Bill Murray.  I know, totally dating myself yet again!

Also, don't forget to enter my giveaway to win a copy of Testing Miss Malarkey and assorted other goodies!