After the End

By Barry Lane

             I love this book!  I am going out to buy my own copy today.  Just when you’ve run out of creative ideas for how to get kids writing and writing well, Barry Lane provides hundreds of useful ideas to not only get writers started, but help them add to and revise their writing into quality work. 

Many students want to just be done after a single draft of a paper, but this book shows practical ways of helping students revise their own and other students’ work where the students have buy-in.  Sections on adding details, using more colorful language, freezing a moment in time, writing in different genres, taking risks, motivating unmotivated students, and many others are included.  This book primarily targets teachers of middle and high school writers, although some strategies are appropriate for upper grade school levels.