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More about Jeff Anderson

  Author's Websitehttp://www.writeguy.net

For the past 25 years, Jeff has worked with writers and teachers of grades, K-12, inspiring them about the power and joy of the writing process. He has written four books for Stenhouse Publishers: Mechanically Inclined, Everyday Editing, 10 Things Every Writer Needs to Know and his latest book with Dr. Deborah Dean of BYU Revision Decisions: Talking Through Sentences and Beyond (November 2014). He also has a middle grade novel, Luke Veracruz Stand Up, coming out in fall of 2015 (Sterling Publishers).

Jeff grew up in Austin, where he learned to love writing through journaling, a bit of positive reinforcement, and writing stories and dramas to entertain his friends on the phone. He wanted to become a teacher early on, but his parents tried to convince him otherwise. "They wanted me to make more money." During an internship visit to a local elementary classroom, he made up his mind. "When I saw those curious eyes, kids raising their hands, asking questions, I lost all track of time and from that moment on, I was a teacher. I want to create environments that feel safe for learners at the elementary, middle, and university levels and during professional development for teachers. Working together we figure out things, surprise each other, find our strengths, and experience the joy it is to be a learner and teacher. We are students and teachers to each other."Jeff specializes in writing, revision, and grammar. "I love the ability to spark curiosity and creativity and to support students in finding their voices. That's pure joy." When it comes to his own professional development, he wants to explore things that have meaning to him in the classroom. "I want to find out things I didn't know, be affirmed or reminded of what I do know, and be energized by thinking and action, reflection and application. Since that's what I want, that's what I give teachers. Something they can take, shape, and make their own. Something they can use right now."Jeff's first book Mechanically Inclined, came to life from what he didn't know and what he needed to know. "I read, tried things out, played in my head and in my classroom, and read some more, permutating and refining. I thought about what worked and what didn't, as well as what sound pedagogical principles are used in other disciplines."

His other books also came from his work in his own classrooms and those across the United States. The invitational process Everyday Editing is built around was first shared in workshops until teachers wanted another book on grammar. 10 Things was Jeff's chance to share what his experience had taught him are the essential things every writer needs to know and be able to do. In his first collaboration, Jeff and Debbie came together to tackle a sentence combining and its larger effects on revision and writing.

In his free time, Jeff walks his dogs Carl and Paisley or sits on the deck with his partner Terry. When he's not doing that he reads middle grade novels and his new addiction is nonfiction.

Revision Decisions Book by Jeff Anderson and Deborah Dean

Revision Decisions: Talking Through Sentences and Beyond

Revision is often a confusing and difficult process for students, but it's also the most important part of the writing process. If students leave our classrooms not knowing how to move a piece of writing forward, we've failed them. Revision Decisions will help teachers develop the skills students need in an ever-evolving writing, language, and reading world. Jeff Anderson and Deborah Dean have written a book that engages writers in the tinkering, playing, and thinking that are essential to clarify and elevate writing.

Focusing on sentences, Jeff and Deborah use mentor texts to show the myriad possibilities that exist for revision. Essential to their process is the concept of classroom talk. Readers will be shown how revision lessons can be discussed in a generative way, and how each student can benefit from talking through the revision process as a group. Revision Decisions focuses on developing both the writing and the writer. The easy-to-follow lessons make clear and accessible the rigorous thinking and the challenging process of making writing work. Narratives, setup lessons, templates, and details about how to move students toward independence round out this essential book. Additionally, the authors weave the language, reading, and writing goals of the Common Core and other standards into an integrated and connected practice.

The noted language arts teacher James Britton once said that good writing "floats on a sea of talk." Revision Decisions supports those genuine conversations we naturally have as readers and writers, leading the way to the essential goal of making meaning.

Fox Valley Reading Council Winter Event: Jeff Anderson on February 24th

Register today! https://www.regonline.com/jeffanderson

Revision Decisions: An Evening of Talking Though Writing, Revising, and Grammar

Writing is not a mere journey to be right; it’s one of making beautiful meaning. Students have to be able to tinker and experiment with writing to clarify and elevate it. Let's engage writers in the muck of play and thought that is essential to making writing effective.  Let's develop twenty-first century writers with all the flexibility needed to face the myriad of choices in an ever-evolving world. We can effortlessly teach grammar through revision and revision through grammar. The essentials of mentor text, talk, and process will be the focus of our evening together. Jeff will also share a bit from his new middle grade series, Zack Delacruz. Professional books and middle grade novel will be for sale onsite and Jeff will be available to sign them.

10 Things Every Writer Needs to Know

In his new book 10 Things Every Writer Needs to Know, Jeff Anderson focuses on developing the concepts and application of ten essential aspects of good writing: motion, models, focus, detail, form, frames, cohesion, energy, words, and clutter. Throughout the book, Jeff provides dozens of model texts, both fiction and nonfiction, that bring alive the ten things every writer needs to know. By analyzing strong mentor texts, young writers explore, discover, and apply what makes good writing work. Jeff dedicates a chapter to each of the ten things every writer needs to know and provides mini-lessons, mentor texts, writing process strategies, and classroom tips.

EVERYDAY BOOKS FOR EVERYDAY LIFE BY JEFF ANDERSON

In fifth grade, I loved reading any book with Henry Huggins in it. The book that hooked me on reading, in fact, was Ribsyby Beverly Cleary (who until adulthood I called Beverly Clearly).

Today my first middle grade novel, Zack Delacruz: Me and My Big Mouth (Sterling, 2015) debuts in bookstores across the United States and Canada. Zack Delacruz was borne of a need for books that would speak to my students—the real students who crowded my classrooms for over twenty years. I wanted them to have books that reflected their diversity of culture and experience. I wanted them to have books that made them laugh and think. I wanted them read a book the way I devoured Henry Huggins. I wanted a book in which nothing truly horrific had to happen.

Don’t get me wrong, death and tragedy certainly raise the stakes in a plot and a multitude of books already do that well. A third-grade teacher recently told me about her class comparing and contrasting their read alouds for the year. A girl scrunched up her face and concluded, “If the grandma dies in this book, then someone will have died in every book we’ve read this year.”

Most middle grade children struggle on a regular basis with more than death or tragedy–bullying, invisibility, and other everyday problems that plague middle grade kids. This was my purpose for writing Zack Delacruz: Me and My Big Mouth. I’d create a day-to-day romp through middle grade life, using the lens of humor to make sense of it all. While Henry Huggins nourished me as a reader, my experiences as a teacher in Title I urban schools nourished me as a writer. The vibrant talk and worries and exposure to what’s important to middle graders provided more drama than a writer could ask for. In fact, middle graders flare for drama drives the plot of Zack Delacruz.

Zack Delacruz: Me and My Big Mouth is not a book about diversity, though the characters are indeed diverse in culture and experience. It’s not an issue book either, though bullying and the over-simplified fixes often given to kids are explored. In the end, I hope readers are entertained—that they laugh and think and pick up another book. I hope they discover at our greatest depths that people are people. We all make mistakes. But what pulls us apart is a small matter when compared to what binds us together.

Everyday reading is for everyday life—I hope to help readers see life clearly now as Beverly Cleary showed me.

Jeff Anderson lives and writes in San Antonio, Texas (and in planes when necessary). He has penned a few books on teaching writing and grammar, including Mechanically Inclined and 10 Things Every Writer Needs to Know. He loves traveling around talking about writing with teachers and students, and now he hopes to continue that and spend even more time as a fiction writer. Zack Delacruz: Me and My Big Mouth is the first in a series of Zack Delacruz novels. Check out the book trailer:https://youtu.be/pDgM72CwdBU

Jeff Anderson & Debbie Dean: Revision Decisions

Watch Now! Jeff Anderson