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Author
Deborah Dean
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"Students need to be engaged to learn. My experience as a teacher has taught me the importance of interesting lessons based on sound principles. The lessons available on ReadWriteThink are just those kinds of lessons, and I recommend them whenever I can."
Educational and professional biography Deborah, a former junior high and high school teacher, is associate professor at Brigham Young University, where she teaches writing and English teaching courses. Deborah has published articles in English Journal, Voices from the Middle, Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, and others. She is the author of several books, including Strategic Writing: The Writing Process and Beyond in the Secondary English Classroom (NCTE), Bringing Grammar to Life (IRA), and Genre Theory (NCTE).
| Contributions on ReadWriteThink.org |
Grades 6 – 8 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Blurring Genre: Exploring Fiction and Nonfiction with Diary of a Worm
After reading several examples of how a published author incorporates facts in fiction writing, students research a topic of their choice and write fictional diary entries that incorporate factual information.
Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Unit
Brochures: Writing for Audience and Purpose
Students create brochures on the same topic as another piece of writing they have done, highlighting how shifting purposes and audiences creates changes in their strategies as writers.
Grades 6 – 8 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Comparing and Contrasting: Picturing an Organizational Pattern
Using picture books as mentor texts, students learn effective strategies for organizing information that compares and contrasts. Students can then apply appropriate organizational strategies to their own papers.
Grades 6 – 8 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Using their prior knowledge of books containing letters, students show their understanding of genre by rewriting a story and reflecting on how traditional stories differs from stories told in letters.
Grades 6 – 8 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Once Upon a Fairy Tale: Teaching Revision as a Concept
Students use fractured fairy tales to practice revision and editing as separate activities when they write their own versions of fairy tales.
Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Semicolons and Swift: Analyzing Punctuation and Meaning
This lesson will help punctuation make a mark on students as they read Jonathan Swift’s work and analyze his use of punctuation.
Grades 5 – 9 | Professional Library | Journal
"Framing Texts: New Strategies for Student Writers"
Using children’s picture books, Deborah Dean provided frameworks for student research papers that avoided the pitfalls leading to voiceless and encyclopedic writing. Research guide sheets; class analysis of text organization, sentence variety, stylistic choices; and peer review all contribute to interesting final papers.
Grades 7 – 12 | Professional Library | Book
Seamlessly integrate grammar instruction into your entire language arts curriculum.
Professional Library | Book
Genre Theory: Teaching, Writing, and Being
Dean synthesizes theory and research about genres and provides secondary-level teachers with practical classroom applications.
Grades 9 – 12 | Professional Library | Book
Strategic Writing: The Writing Process and Beyond in the Secondary English Classroom
Dean introduces postprocess theory to high school English teachers in a practical, classroom-based way.
Grades 7 – 12 | Professional Library | Book
What Works in Writing Instruction: Research and Practices
Through teacher-friendly language and classroom examples, Deborah Dean takes a close look at effective, research-based practices for writing instruction.
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