Best Selling Books by Constance Weaver

Weaver incorporates especially timely information--accurate data, informed critique, and results of often-ignored research--to help teachers counteract government and corporate intrusion into classrooms.

Weaver extends her philosophy by offering teachers a rationale and practical ideas for teaching grammar not in isolation but in the context of writing.

As the term "whole language" becomes more widely used, it seems to become less clearly understood. Among whole language educators, there is a concern that this philosophy is in danger of being increasingly misunderstood and misapplied. Moreover, there is concern that this reform movement will be curtailed because practices that are contrary to a holistic philosophy are being promoted in the name of whole language. The aim of this book is to demonstrate that whole language is good education that can help to develop literate citizens and lifelong learners. Understanding Whole Language is directed toward teachers and teacher educators, and also school administrators. Because classroom teachers have been so active in developing and promoting whole language, many administrators feel left out; they have heard much about holistic, child-centered teaching and the impact it has had upon teachers and children but they may not understand the principles that underlie whole language practices. Professor Weaver stresses that the whole language philosophy can be applied to create educational reform at the school system level, but that this process requires a sustained, long-term effort by all parties involved.

In this book, the author looks at what''s wrong with the way grammar has been taught traditionally, and outlines current theories, research, and principles underlying grammar instruction for writing, advocating that grammar instruction be incorporated throughout the writing process, not broken out into isolated units. She offers teaching ideas and lesson plans for primary and secondary students, and gathers practicing teachers to describe their methods for responding to student errors, helping English language learners, and supporting code switching among speakers of African American English. Exercises for students and examples of student work at all levels are included.

A narrative of three educators who decided to research how teachers and students engage in theme study in a truly effective and holistic way. It provides comfort for others who are experiencing difficulties and tensions of becoming "whole language" teachers.

Thanks to Connie Weaver, generations of teachers have come to understand that the most efficient way to teach grammar that''s relevant for writing is to embed it within writing instruction. Now her Grammar Plan Book is designed with precisely one thing in mind: to be the best resource you''ve ever used for teaching grammar to strengthen writing. This new book helps you apply a limited amount of grammar instruction directly to writing and enables you to map out instruction in the way that best serves the needs of your students. A complete planning tool, The Grammar Plan Book has two complementary parts. Part One describes an overarching framework for high-quality grammar instruction in conjunction with the process of writing. It offers: engaging examples of effective teaching demonstrations of how that teaching has improved students'' use of grammatical options in writing suggestions for deciding which editing conventions to teach an informal analysis of the grammatical content of typical ACT practice exams. The Plan Book also contains ideas for encouraging students to make independent use of what they''ve learned in their own writing and about how to apply grammatical insights to enhance and improve their writing, from adding details to editing appropriately. Then in Part Two, Weaver presents an exceptional tool for preparing to teach grammar related to improving writing: a minimal grammar handbook for teachers that doubles as a lesson planner. Everything you need to know to teach major grammatical options, stylistic features, and conventions is included: basic grammatical functions within the sentence grammatical options for adding details and sentence fluency connectors (transitions) for organizational flow parallelism and other rhetorical devices for emphasis and effect, style, and voice stylistic options (dialect versus "standard") for different audiences and purposes conventions most important for edited American English "rules" that don''t necessarily rule effective published writing. With a designated column for your notes, special lay-flat binding for your convenience, and helpful, comprehensive coverage of important grammatical concepts, The Grammar Plan Book is designed with one thing in mind: to be the best resource you''ve ever used for teaching grammar to strengthen writing.

This book addresses the need to help others understand the nature of learning and the processes of language and literacy development.