Teachers’ Frequently Asked Questions

• How have the new standards and assessments affected writing instruction? The new standards emphasize informational and literary reading and writing. The new assessments ask students to read multiple sources in a simulated research environment and then draw evidence from these sources in writing a response. Helping students improve their reading, writing, and thinking skills will help them score well.
• How does Writers Express teach the new writing standards? Writers Express uses the qualities of writing, which are derived from the new standards. Expanded sections on writing for assessment prepare students to perform their best in classroom and high-stakes environments. To see a page-by-page correlation of Writers Express to the new standards, click here.
• Why do students struggle so much with writing? If your students struggle with writing, they may be trying to do too much all at once. Help them learn to use the writing process. They can search for a topic, gather details, organize them, and then write a first draft. Afterward, they can revise and edit their work. Trying to do all of that in one sitting is frustrating and yields less-than-excellent results.
• What’s the fastest way to improve student writing? Have students write a lot. Writing is like weightlifting. The only way to get stronger is to keep at it, flexing those muscles. Thankfully, writing helps students learn in all subjects, so you can have them write in science and social studies as well as English/Language Arts. The more students write, the more they will learn in any subject.
• How can I teach students to revise and edit? You can use the revising and editing guidelines in Writers Express. You can also use the many revising and editing checklists, which focus on the qualities of writing, preparing students for the new assessments. When they edit, students can use the Proofreader’s Guide at the end of the book. It provides instruction and examples for all of the key rules of punctuation, capitalization, spelling, usage, sentences, and grammar.
• Why is writing so hard to teach? Most everything else you teach starts with content that you provide to students. Writing starts with nothing . . . and ends with content that students provide to you. In that way, writing is backward from most other subjects. That’s why Writers Express is a student handbook. It gives students something to start with and guides them through the process of generating an effective document. Writing requires a student-centered approach.
• What’s the difference between a handbook and a textbook? A handbook is a student-centered text for direct instruction in English/Language Arts classes, but also for students to use when they are writing in any of their classes. For that reason, Writers Express is lighter, easier to carry, and friendlier than a textbook. Also, handbooks tend to be half the cost of a typical textbook.
• What does Writers Express have for me, the teacher? An online teacher’s edition of the book correlates every page of the student handbook to the new standards. The teacher’s edition also includes getting-started activities for every chapter as well as interesting quotes to get your students thinking about the content.

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