Cracking Open the Author's Craft

Book excerpt: Award-winning children's author and acclaimed educator Lester Laminack invites you and your students to join him as he peels back the layers of his picture book Saturdays and Teacakes to make the writing moves visible. With Lester as guide on the enclosed DVD, your young writers will observe and explore what he did, how he did it, and why he did it that way. As Lester demonstrates how to read with a writer's eyes and ears, your students will gain increasing control over their own narrative writing. Lester provides you with multiple tools. You'll find 14 ready-to-use mini-lessons to introduce your students to techniques and literary elements. Carefully selected anchor texts provide inspiration for exploring each technique and element. In addition, a professional workshop to use on your own or with colleagues will deepen your own knowledge base. This "workshop-in-a-book," also perfect for literacy coaches and teacher leaders, demonstrates how to read like a writer, identify "craft moves," and form theories about why the moves were made. The DVD features Lester explaining how writers practice audible and visual craft, using Saturdays and Teacakes to illustrate both. The DVD also includes downloadable forms that you can share with your students to explore author's craft and to monitor their evolving understanding. Use the DVD to have Lester talk directly to the class, or use the book to present the lessons yourself. Either method will help you teach your students to develop their own "craft moves," which will enliven and refine their writing. Book jacket.