Catching Up on Conventions: Grammar Lessons for Middle School Writers

Chantal and Elisa show us the teaching and learning of conventions as part of a personal and collective striving toward proficiency, power, and independence. They help us conceive the daily work of learning language as part of more mythic work, which is that of becoming greater than we were. - 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.

For success in school, Standard English grammar isn't optional - it's an option every student must have. But it's not too late for underprepared students to find the power of choice and take their passion for writing to a whole new level. Not when they're Catching Up on Conventions.