Writer's Toolbox is a textbook designed to help students improve their writing by placing major emphasis on effective sentence combining. Strong focuses on the writing process and organizes the book into different sections according to the process: generating and planning, freewriting and drafting, shaping and revising, and editing and proofreading.
I liked the chapter devoted to generating and planning. He lists six different prewriting strategies: listing, webbing, sketching, collaborating, questioning, and outlining. Then, after students work to combine sentences, he suggests that they choose a topic from their combined sentences and work with one of the prewriting strategies. This is something that I would consider doing at the beginning of the year when introducing the writing process. If a student worked through all six prewriting strategies, they would have six tentative drafts that they could later choose from to revise.
I think the integration of sentence combining with the writing process would greatly improve student writing. The only drawback that I see to this book is that some of the exercises are fairly sophisticated for lower level students. I would like to follow a similar structure with a special education class; however, I would need to write sentences with less complicated words and ideas. This is a practical book that I would consider buying.