Set up your writing block quickly and easily with a simple, research-based framework Schools need their writing instruction simplified. Most classrooms share writing time with another subject, making it difficult for students to receive the direct writing instruction they need. Between the lack of time, increased gaps in writing skills, and inconsistent writing curriculum, teachers are struggling to bring their students up to grade level. Simplify Your Writing Instruction provides you with a classroom-tested framework that helps you set up your writing block within the limited time and resources you have. Step by step, this practical guide shows you how to amplify your students’ writing skills, employ simple feedback opportunities and interventions, streamline your lessons, use simple differentiation techniques to help reach students of all ability levels, and more. Author April Smith is a former teacher who has trained more than 50,000 K-12 educators on best practices for writing instruction. While in the classroom, she learned that having simple and consistent systems in place is critical. Accordingly, none of the tasks and strategies will require you to create or prep anything complicated or time-consuming. In Simplify Your Writing Instruction, you will find easy-to-use checklists, implementation tasks, customizable templates, student writing samples, helpful tables and charts, and a simple spreadsheet that you can use to plan your lessons and modify your teaching to meet the needs of each writer. Be confident and supported in your writing instruction. Simplify Your Writing Instruction will teach you how to: Implement the Simple Pre-Assessment Process in your classroom Encourage authentic writing practice at home Differentiate your lessons to reach your Special Education, ELL, and Gifted students Integrate grammar naturally and optimize student output after each lesson Split the writing process into efficient and effective 10- to 15-minute mini-lessons Make writing a priority by incorporating writing application into other subjects Use a simple pre-assessment to get a better overall picture of what your students can do Utilize more complex strategies such as small group work and conferring Packed with expert advice and easy-to-follow strategies, Simplify Your Writing Instruction: A Framework for a Better Writing Block is a must-have resource for all K-12 educators and teachers in training.

A popular self published book in the area, Hacking Project Based Learning, has sold over 5,000 copies on Bookscan in ten months Author runs the website Performing in Education, dedicated to teaching educators to implement PBL, and providing resources, seminars, and workshops Includes over 100 activity ideas with instructions and alterations

For the first time, author Lisa April Smith merges her proven skill at delivering unforgettable characters, page-turner suspense and a scientist's insistence on accuracy. "Forgotten Tales of China" is an epic saga of survival, sacrifice, lust and love, indomitable perseverance, bravery and betrayal. The location is the fertile Yellow River basin near modern-day Beijing - the Chinese Cradle of Civilization. For tens of thousands of years this unique river alternately rewarded its inhabitants hard work, then unpredictably swept away everything in its path with deadly unbridled fury. Each of six tales has its own characters, conflicts and story. The first tale, "The People," is set 40,000 years ago, with a small band who communicate almost solely through sign language. Their lives are shattered by the loss of precious fire - which they have not as yet learned to create. In response to this crisis, Storm, their inexperienced eighteen year old leader, takes four men to steal it from feared Strangers. The result of this chilling lethal exchange will forever alter the People's lives. And then there's low-ranking Berry, the first to be beaten and the last to eat, a nine year old girl who imagines herself to be the successor to Wise Old Mother, the troupe's revered shaman. The following five tales - "Giants," "Squint," Shing's Daughters," "The Temple of the Goddess" and "The Bronze Worker and the Discarded Conqubine" - each address a quantum leap in social and technical development, from the beginnings of spoken language, to the invention of new weapons and tools, to the advent of dynastic government and its inevitable consequence, the fight for vast wealth and power. But the stories are always about human beings: their singular genius, frailties and strengths, passion, love and loss, desires and dreams. If you're interested in China, or if good historic fiction is among the genres you enjoy, this one is for you. If you're a fan of Clan of the Cave Bear, the first two stories of Forgotten Tales are sure to delight. And if you are the rare individual who insists on accuracy in historic fiction, this one was written for you. "L. A. Smith's characters radiate the fear and wonder of discovering for the first time so much of what we today accept as ordinary - and the essence of what it is to be human." " . . . heartbreak and triumph, victimization and courage, power and compassion, reading these stories is like feeling a spark between your own fingertips and those of your most distant ancestors." Author and reviewer Valley Brown

It's 1961 and Palm Beach socialite, irresistible rascal and devoted father Jack Morgan encounters genuine danger while staging his suicide to shield his beloved daughters from scandal and disgrace. Next, meet his daughter Charlotte (Charlie), an over-indulged 23 year-old struggling to cope with the loss of her beloved father, her sister's resulting mental breakdown and the discovery that she's now penniless. Fortunately Raul, an admiring young attorney, offers assistance to the traumatized young woman, who can joke about her inadequacies. As terrified as she is about paying for her sister's costly treatment and her own daily survival, Charlie soon realizes that she must learn what drove her father to kill himself. With Raul's much needed ego-bolstering, she pursues a career that makes practical use of her lanky 5' 11" frame. Despite roadblocks and emotional upheavals, she embarks on an ocean-spanning journey that leads to a family she doesn't know, distressing truths about her father, crimes great and small, a diabolical villain and a fireworks of surprise endings. Excerpts from reviews of "Exceeding Expectations: " "Lisa April Smith . . . has woven an intriguingly rich tapestry of delightful well-developed characters into a perfectly balanced plot bursting with riveting mystery, crimes of the petty and the horrible sort, suspenseful twists, and romantic tension complete with love scenes that sizzle and pop." "Set in the varied and stunning backdrops of early 1960s Palm Beach and Manhattan high society, as well as mid-1930s to early 1940s Paris . . ." Cari L. Pedstelak: http: //audacityshewrote.com ." . . it's the authentic details of the time-periods that make it fun to read . . ." "historical and fictitious characters work in sync as they are perfectly set in these time frames, and midst the transitory madness of WWs I and II Paris." " Smith's writing isn't over-blown with emotion and sappy romance; rather, it is sophisticated and subtle." "It's witty, fun and sassy." Deborah Previte: http: //abookishlibrarian.blogspot.com

All the twists and suspense, danger and crime, romance and sizzle, that kept readers of Exceeding Expectations turning the pages long into the night, are back in Paradise Misplaced, along with Charlie, Jack and Naomi - three unforgettable characters. In Manhattan, being recently dumped by her soulmate becomes the least of Charlotte (Charlie) Morgan's problems after she is viciously pushed off a subway platform in front of an oncoming train. Her modeling career seems over and she may not walk again. Throughout her lengthy hospital stay the police have no success finding her assailant or determining a motive. A handsome detective recovering from similar injuries is assigned to be her physical therapy partner. Concerned that her attacker will try again, he urges her to draw up list of anyone she might have angered or rejected. Eliminating those who don't fit a compiled description of her attacker leaves just one suspect - a millionaire power broker with a famous art collection. In his quest for his next wealthy wife, loveable lothario/conman Jack is in Buenos Aires romancing women he meets at a fashionable hotel where he even isn't a registered guest. To finance this precarious existence, Jack ever-so-gently exploits foreign tourists and local land barons. But whether he succeeds, falls short or fails miserably, rely on sexy Jack to be entertaining. Understandably bitter Naomi is in Israel works on an archeological dig and seeks temporary relief from her demons in one-night-stands and meaningless affairs. Unwilling to be yet another in a series of her lovers, a rough-hewn widowed farmer relentlessly pursues her. On three continents, with thousands of miles separating them, will Charlie, Jack and Naomi meet? Will their individual stories end in triumph or disaster? Prepare to stay glued until the very last page

"Pathway of Light" is a book of poems based on the life of the author. These are unlike any poems you've ever read. Real life situations are turned into words that rhyme. They will touch your heart and soul. Through reading these heart-felt poems, you will be challenged in ways you may not imagine possible You will laugh, cry, and perhaps even pray. The author has been through times of lonliness, hopelessness, heartache, fear and shattered dreams, as well as times of great joy, peace, and hope beyond her dreams She found there's a difference between having religion, and having a relationship with God.

In the hardest time of her life, she had little desire to live. But, something kept her going, Someone, rather. A thirst entered her soul, to seek the meaning of life. God touched her heart and soul, setting her on a quest to understand why most of what she learned in traditional religion was not biblical. She found that we must not turn to others to get to Heaven- but to God Himself After writing poems through it all, she shared some with her husband and close friends, who encouraged her to publish them, that others may receive hope, too.

As you read, be encouraged and discover God's great faithfulness

FBI Agent Ana Grey returns to infiltrate the volatile core of an eco-terrorist cell in the Pacific Northwest.
Only months after a traumatic shooting incident, Ana is still emotionally unstable when she returns to work and learns that a fellow agent--and former lover--was killed by a group of terrorists operating under the name of FAN (Free Animals Now). To find the murderer and prevent any further killing, Ana goes undercover as an animal activist. In the course of her investigation, Ana encounters Julius Emerson Phelps, the charismatic leader of a "family" of anarchists in rural Oregon, whose secret past could blow the Bureau to pieces. To matters worse, Ana learns that Phelps is preparing a cataclysmic act of terrorism. With time ticking away and her undercover identity in jeopardy, Ana must find a way to solve her case and foil Phelp's bloody plot.

The only female scout in the majors, hard-living Cassidy Sanderson impulsively hops a plane to the Dominican Republic to snatch up young phenom Alberto Cruz for the Los Angeles Dodgers. But Cruz may have something even Cassidy's well-trained eye can't catch -- "a bad spirit on him" -- and when she tangles with Joe Galanis, a powerful real estate developer, she becomes ensnared in a tightening triangle of blackmail, voodoo, and violence. Inside the back rooms of high-stakes sports and high finance, Cassidy discovers a fine line exists between competitor and killer.

FBI Special Agent Ana Grey debuts in this electrifying thriller marked by psychological acuity and unfaltering suspense.
After Ana Grey pulls off "the most amazing arrest of the year," the squad supervisor--who doesn't like irreverent, tough-minded young women--gives her a reprimand instead of the promotion she deserves. As a test, she is assigned a high-profile case involving a beloved Hollywood movie star and an illegal supply of prescription drugs. It doesn't take Ana and her partner, Mike Donnato, long to realize "this is not a case" but "a political situation waiting to explode"--and they're holding the bomb. As the boundary between her private and professional lives begins to blur, Ana's own world collides with her investigation, and she is forced to confront the searing truth about the nature of power and identity, and the mystery of her past.

Cora Blake never dreamed she'd go to Paris. She's hardly ever left the small fishing village where she grew up. Yet in the summer of 1931, she is invited to travel to France with hundreds of other Gold Star Mothers, courtesy of the U.S. government, to say goodbye to their fallen sons, American casualties of World War I who were buried overseas.
Chaperoned by a dashing West Point officer, Cora's group includes the wife of an immigrant chicken farmer; a housemaid; a socialite; a former tennis star in precarious mental health; and dozens of other women from all over the country. Along the way, the women will forge lifelong friendships as they face a death, a scandal, and a secret revealed.