Teaching Idea Development: A Standards-Based Critical-Thinking Approach to Writing

"The most marvelously practical and engaging approach to come along in decades. It goes beyond the basics to take up very practical techniques that are terribly useful but not covered in most textbooks. All of us want our students to think critically and creatively - this book shows us how to teach them to do just that. A superb text."
David R. Russell, Professor of English
Iowa State University, Ames, IA

"A wealth of practical instruction activities to use in the classroom that can help students at all levels learn to flesh out the bare bones of their ideas. The world of effective writing, meant for authentic audiences and purposes, guides every suggestion made in this book."
Jan Isenhour, Executive Director
The Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning
Lexington, KY

"An excellent writing resource for teachers interested in helping students develop critical thinking skills. Loaded with specific objectives, student models, and classroom lessons, this book provides a catalog of useful strategies. New teachers, especially, should find this extremely useful."
Harry Noden
Author of Image Grammar
Kent State University, Kent, OH

Turn good ideas into great writing with this hands-on guide!

Idea development is a concrete skill that can be taught in a systematic way, and this step-by-step guide provides educators in all content areas with the tools they need to help students think more critically and write with more fully developed ideas.

Hatton and Ladd, instructors with the esteemed Kentucky Writing Program, offer the reading-writing-thinking sequences that successful writers use when developing ideas. This teacher resource is chock-full of ideas that teachers in intermediate, middle, or secondary schools can implement immediately. Most important, the strategies and tactics offered are designed to work in the current highly rigorous, standards-based school environment, providing results that are both successful and measurable.

Teaching Idea Development explores the theory and practice of implementing idea development in the classroom, from identifying and solving common idea-development problems to strategies for teaching essential writing skills, including:

• Description
• Comparison and contrast
• Cause and effect
• Dialogue
• Anecdotes
• Vignettes

. . . and much more, in a lively, enthusiastic, and highly usable guide for teaching students how to think critically about their ideas as they express them effectively.