Four Essential Studies: Beliefs and Practices to Reclaim Student Agency invites teachers to shift more decision making to students so they can grow as independent readers, writers and thinkers. The book begins with the question of who makes the decisions in classrooms and challenges the overreliance on step-by-step structures that can stifle authentic learning. Gallagher and Kittle present four key areas of study that together create a balanced and engaging English program: Essays, Book Clubs, Poetry and Digital Compositions. Each study blends teacher modeling with student choice, helping young people wrestle with ideas, develop inquiry, and build confidence.

This book is divided into four parts:

·         Part I – Teaching the ESSAY as an Art Form discusses the needs for students to go beyond the five-paragraph essay formula and understand essay writing as a craft that requires voice, purpose and authenticity.

·         Part II – Book Clubs: The Best Teacher of Reading is the Reading emphasizes the power of sustained, independent reading supported by collaborative discussions.

·         Part III – Poetry: The Potential for Unexpected Things positions poetry as a space for discovery, play and risk-taking.

·         Part IV – Digital Composition: Crossing Genre Boundaries highlights the importance of expanding writing into multimodal and digital forms to mirror real-world communication.

Micro Mentor Texts: Using Short Passages from Great Books to Teach Writer’s Craft offers teachers a practical, craft-centered guide to using very short excerpts (e.g., a few sentences, a paragraph, a brief scene) from acclaimed books to teach writing intentionally and joyfully. Each chapter is organized around a craft focus (e.g., sensory detail, dialogue) and includes multiple micro texts, clear mini-lessons, and opportunities for hands-on practice. She invites teachers to write alongside students, exploring those craft moves in their own notebooks and thinking deeply about the author’s choices.

This book is divided into 9 chapters:

·         Chapter 1 – Igniting the Imagination with Sensory Details

·         Chapter 2 – Organizing Artfully: The List

·         Chapter 3 – Organizing Artfully: The Power of Three

·         Chapter 4 – Noticing What Dialogue Reveals

·         Chapter 5 – Developing Scenes

·         Chapter 6 – Crafting Voice

·         Chapter 7 – Capturing Movements in Time

·         Chapter 8 – Using Literary Devices

·         Chapter 9 – Combining Craft Moves: The Power of Beginnings and Endings in Books

Reading Nonfiction: Notice and Note Stances, Signposts, and Strategies is designed to help students approach informational texts more thoughtfully. The book introduces the idea of stances, which guide students to read attentively, remain open to new ideas and question assumptions without being gullible. It also identifies nonfiction signposts (e.g., extreme or absolute language, numbers and statistics, quoted words that signal important information). These signposts prompt students to pause, notice patterns, and ask critical questions. In addition, the book offers practical strategies that teachers can use to support discussion and analysis. Lessons combine Big Questions, signposts, and strategies so students learn how to evaluate texts while connecting them to their own lives. The approach moves beyond surface-level comprehension and helps students practice reasoning, reflection and evidence-based thinking. Teachers can use this resource to guide students in becoming critical, confident and independent readers of nonfiction.

This book is divided into four parts:

·         Part I – Issues to Consider outlines ten issues that directed Beers’ & Probst’s thinking about teaching nonfiction and includes prompts to guide faculty conversations.

·         Part II – The Importance of Stance introduces three Big Questions that shape a questioning stance: What surprised me? What did the author think I already knew? What changed, challenged or confirmed what I already knew?

·         Part III – The Power of Signposts explains 5 nonfiction signposts and how to use their anchor questions: Contrasts and Contradictions, Extreme or Absolute Language, Numbers and Stats, Quoted Words, and Word Gaps.

·         Part IV – The Role of Strategies provides seven practical classroom strategies to help guide students reading nonfiction texts: Possible Sentences, KWL 2.0, Somebody Wanted But So, Syntax Surgery, Sketch to Sketch, Genre Reformulation, and Poster.

The Writing Workshop Teacher’s Guide to Multimodal Composition (6–12) reimagines workshop as a space where students compose through words, visuals, sound, movement and digital tools. Stockman argues that privileging print alone limits student voice and excludes many learners, while multimodal approaches create more equitable entry points. The book highlights how students’ cultural and personal histories shape their composing. It provides teachers with practical tools, reflection prompts and mentor texts to bring multimodal practices into classrooms. Students are guided to plan, revise and share their work using design principles (e.g., contrast, emphasis, alignment). This approach helps learners engage more deeply in meaning-making and prepares them for authentic communication in the world beyond school.

This book is divided into four parts:

• Part I – What Is Multimodal Composition? defines multimodal composition, explains why it matters, and describes how it can be situated within writing workshop, with attention to empathy, identity, and curricular integration.
• Part II – How Do We Create Multimodal Writing Workshops? presents a blueprint for designing multimodal workshops, including curriculum planning, assessment of processes and products, and building authentic relationships.
• Part III – How Do We Teach Multimodal Composition? focuses on classroom practice, showing how students can use mentor texts, designer’s notebooks, and design principles to plan, iterate, revise, and launch multimodal compositions into the world.
• Part IV – Appendix A: Planning Tools & Appendix B: Tools for Writer provide planning tools, feedback protocols, empathy exercises, and mentor text resources to support teachers and writers in multimodal workshops.

Write Like This: Teaching Real-World Writing Through Modleing & Mentor Texts is designed to provide teachers with practical strategies for teaching writing in secondary classrooms. Gallagher emphasizes that students learn best by studying models of effective writing and then imitating those models in their own work. The book identifies real-world purposes for writing: express and reflect, inform and explain, evaluate and judge, inquire and explore, analyze and interpret, and take a stand/propose a solution. These purposes make writing more authentic and help students see its value beyond school. Gallagher provides mentor texts, scaffolds, and classroom-ready activities that show teachers how to model writing in front of students. Students are guided to notice craft moves, practice them in small chunks, and then integrate them into more polished pieces. The approach encourages both skill development and student voice, with the aim of making writing more meaningful and achievable for learners.

This book is divided into nine chapters:

·         Chapter 1 – Moving Writing to the Front Burner

·         Chapter 2 – Express and Reflect

·         Chapter 3 – Inform and Explain

·         Chapter 4 – Evaluate and Judge

·         Chapter 5 – Inquire and Explore

·         Chapter 6 – Analyze and Interpret

·         Chapter 7 – Take a Stand/Propose a Solution

·         Chapter 8 – Polishing the Paper