Book Review: Barry Lane's "The Reviser's Toolbox"
The Book I Said Was For "Elementary Teachers" I Use Everyday
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For the first book review on the blog for educators, I wanted to discuss a book that unexpectedly has changed the way I teach writing. I am a secondary educator; however, after working with two elementary teachers one summer, I noticed that this book was ALWAYS in their stack of books needed for writing camp. They carried this thing around. It was marked; it was annotated.
This book was Barry Lane's The Reviser's Toolbox. With a bright yellow colored cover, and practical lessons that can easily be reproduced for the classroom, I was simply hooked. With the upswing of teaching informational and argumentative writing, I had forgotten a long lost love of mine: narrative writing. Barry tackles all genres in this book, but many of the lessons pertain to narrative writing and how students write with both creativity and complexity. Here are my large take-a-ways:
Scene=dialogue+snapshot+thoughtshot
Questions on snapshot or thoughtshot? Click on this pdf: Snapshots__Thoughtshots
Snapshot with Pics is a lesson I created to help teach snapshots in the classroom
Explode-a-moment and playing with time
Peer revision expectations and resources
