In the America’s Choice Writers Advantage, students and teachers study exemplary writing and the techniques of highly regarded authors. Students learn the writing process from true experts: writers themselves. Research shows that this apprenticeship model of instruction, in which novices learn by studying and emulating experts, is highly effective.

Writers Advantage establishes a daily, one-hour time block for productive study and practice of writing. The emphasis is on the writing process, which incorporates the stages that expert writers use—from generating ideas to getting thoughts down on paper or on the computer; from drafting to soliciting and incorporating comments; and from revising to polishing for clarity and correctness. The writing process culminates when students “publish,” present and celebrate their finished pieces with their classmates and other audiences as well.

Writers Advantage makes writing an engaging, satisfying activity, not a chore, for students and teachers alike. By getting into the habit of writing and by experimenting with language, they learn to think of themselves as writers.

Even students who write well benefit from Writers Advantage, which moves all students to higher levels of performance—grade-level expectations and beyond.

Beginning on the first day of Writers Advantage, students learn how to manage their time to work productively. This built-in approach to classroom management, known as Rituals and Routines, helps students work independently or collaborate with their peers.

Equally important, Rituals and Routines enable teachers to work with students in small groups or individually to target specific needs and provide valuable comments on student work.

Many teachers believe this is one of the most powerful aspects of Writers Advantage. In fact, the structured, purposeful organization of Writers Advantage, in which students understand the expectations and enjoy writing pieces that are meaningful to them, can reduce disciplinary issues in chaotic classrooms.

Writing is valued in the world because it is one of the best ways to express thinking. Students need to have something to say when they write—and to know how to tell if they have said it well.

Writers Advantage doesn’t just teach the writing process. Through Genre and Author Studies, it teaches content that is the foundation of good writing—and good thinking, which extends beyond the writing classroom and into other disciplines.

With Genre Studies, students learn the ways in which writers organize their texts, convey their thinking, and use language to communicate effectively. They study and produce texts in such genres as narrative, report, and persuasive writing. These are the genres students typically are expected to know to meet school demands and state testing requirements—and that serve them well beyond the K–12 years.

Students keep Sourcebooks of their inquiries and ideas from Genre Studies that they can apply to their own work, learning to stretch themselves and progress with increasingly difficult assignments.

With Author Studies, students learn the ways in which real writers make their meaning clear in their work. They read several works by the same author, exploring the author’s words and meaning in depth, often reading books or passages again and again to fully understand the author’s style, intent, and techniques. They produce responses to this literature that express the commonalities or differences in the texts, while also closely evaluating what they read and justifying their claims with evidence from the books or passages.

Research strongly suggests that reading and writing are related skills. Writing reinforces reading. Reading reinforces writing.

The connections between reading and writing are not automatic, however. To boost performance on state tests, reading and writing instruction must give students a deep grounding in genres and text structures, which is exactly what Writers Advantage does.

Writers Advantage makes the connections between reading and writing explicit, teaching students to read like writers, mining texts for organizational and language cues that convey meaning—key cognitive strategies for reading comprehension. And it teaches students to write like readers, structuring their texts and using language to make their meaning clear and, at times, compelling.

By integrating reading and writing, Writers Advantage helps students become more proficient at both.

Many teachers are understandably wary of instructional programs that ignore the needs of students with special challenges. Writers Advantage, which was developed in collaboration with experts in English language acquisition, is compatible with the needs of ELLs and special populations.

Writing makes thinking visible, so teachers can see exactly where students are experiencing difficulty with language.

The classroom management structure enables teachers to work with small groups or individual students, which is the perfect setting to differentiate instruction and target specific language needs. Further, because Writers Advantage builds in time for collaboration and presentations, students bolster English oral language skills and vocabulary as an everyday, in-class routine—exactly what the research recommends for building English proficiency. Writers Advantage also works with beginning ELLs.

America’s Choice literacy experts model specific strategies for working with special populations, so teachers can feel confident that their students are getting the right instruction to progress in English literacy.

With writing now required for the SAT, plenty of firms are rushing to market with instructional packages designed to improve student performance.

America’s Choice has developed Writers Advantage over many years, taking all the time necessary to do the job right. Almost a decade ago, we gathered the nation’s leading researchers on reading and writing and asked them to describe the ideal course of study. Today, we’re still at the cutting edge of the field.

Writers Advantage is based on groundbreaking work in reading, writing, speaking, and listening expectations. Classroom rubrics support progress toward end-of-year, grade-level expectations aligned with state or district standards. Students help to create the rubrics—and make them increasingly more rigorous throughout the year—and use the rubrics to assess and revise their work.

Writers Advantage is the most complete instructional program available today.