Writing in the Middle

"My role is to demonstrate why people write, communicate specific expectations, establish structures that help kids focus and be deliberate, teach relevant lessons they can put to use to see a difference in the quality of their writing, and advise them as someone who has learned some things along the way about how good writing looks and sounds." -Nancie Atwell

Writing in the Middle is the opportunity of a teaching lifetime: to watch Nancie Atwell at work, side by side with her students as they become skillful, intentional writers. On this staff development DVD, Nancie shows us the methods that have made In the Middle a celebrated classic. You'll see how she helps students develop topics they care about, provides practical advice that transforms both writing and writer, and creates the conditions that lead her students to finish more than twenty pieces of writing each year and to win recognition for their excellence as writers.

Nancie gives us a guided tour of her classroom, a seat in her writing workshop, and a CD full of before-and-after samples of her students' work, plus her own reproducible forms. We see how she: sets clear expectations and ground rules for writing workshop talks with individuals and helps them move their writing forward, toward literature presents accessible minilessons that demonstrate the processes and practices of effective writers inspires every student she teaches to engage, produce, and improve as a writer.

Thirty years in the making, Writing in the Middle highlights the practices that have made Nancie one of America's most respected and influential educators. It inspires teachers to new heights so that we, like Nancie, can look back in June and say, "My students and I worked this year. The work was real. And I was of use to my kids."

Video Run Time: 1 Hr. 51 Min.

Learn about Nancie's companion DVD Reading in the Middle.

Click here to save 25% when you buy Reading in the Middle and Writing in the Middle together.

Nancie Atwell is one of the most respected educators in the U.S. and across the world. Winner of the Varkey Foundation's inaugural Global teacher Prize, she donated the $1 million award to the Center for Teaching and Learning, the K-8 demonstration school she founded in Edgecomb, Maine, in 1990. Nancie's classic In the Middle, now in its third edition, has inspired generations of teachers; in it she describes her teaching journey and the practices she developed that led to her nomination. Thomas Newkirk calls In the Middle "the greatest book on literacy teaching ever written in this country." Visit Heinemann.com/InTheMiddle for more about the book and Nancie. A middle school English teacher for almost forty years, Nancie is also the first classroom teacher to be awarded the NCTE David H. Russell Award and the MLA Mina P. Shaughnessy Prize, both for distinguished research in the teaching of English. She was also honored as NCTE's Outstanding Middle School English Teacher and as the River of Words Poetry Teacher of the Year. She has received honorary doctoral degrees from Middlebury College and the University of New Hampshire. Nancie's books for Heinemann include Systems to Transform Your Classroom and School, which takes teachers inside her award-winning school to learn about the innovations that make the biggest impact on achievement and community; Lessons That Change Writers, a year's worth of instruction straight from Nancie's file cabinets; and Naming the World: A Year of Poems and Lessons, which helps teachers to jumpstart their teaching of writing and literature each day by unpacking a poem with their students. Her DVDs Writing in the Middle and Reading in the Middle give teachers a seat in her workshop as she presents lessons and conducts conferences that transform her students' literacy - and their lives.