When was the last time you shook up your writing instruction? In Renew!: Become a Better and More Authentic Writing Teacher, author Shawna Coppola builds on the premise that our students are ever-changing, and so is our collective knowledge base. Instructional strategies that have worked in the past may need to evolve accordingly. Coppola guides K-8 writing teachers with a three-part framework for Rethinking, Revising, and Renewing their approach'sand finding new energy along the way. Using the framework, Renew! examines the most pervasive educational practices in writing instruction and poses questions that guide teachers to revise those practices to ensure they are effective for all students. Coppola believes the work is challenging, yet critical, referencing R. Buckminster Fuller's Knowledge Doubling Curve: According to Fuller's paradigm, the amount of time it takes for us to increase our collective knowledge base by 100 percent will continue to shrink the older we get. If this is true'sor even close to being true'show can we, as educators, ever feel satisfied with teaching our students the same concepts, using the same methodologies and practices, that we have in the past? The book offers a road map for renewing key aspects of our practice, including:

Introduction; Chapter 1: Why It's Important to Continually Rethink, Revise, & Renew Our Practice as Teachers of Writers; Chapter 2: Renew How We Teach Writing Process; Chapter 3: Renew What It Means to "Write"; Chapter 4: Renew the Tools We Use to Teach Our Student Writers; Chapter 5: Renew How We Assess & Evaluate Student Writing; Chapter 6: Renew Our Role as Teachers of Writers; Afterword