Razzle Dazzle Writing: Achieving Excellence Through 50 Target Skills Paperback – August 1, 2001

One of the best writing aids I have found in my 25 year career in education!

This book has been so helpful to me in preparing a writing class for our homeschool co-op for beginning writers. It is incredibly thorough, offering handouts for students as well as some worksheet type practice, and guidance for the teacher. The author has even included some skits to introduce writing concepts such as: strong verbs, metaphors, details, revising a draft, etc. All very humorous and cleverly done. The book has a wealth of information on essay writing, including an introduction to the 5 paragraph essay. Creative writing is also covered with her "story glove" approach. Here the 5 fingers on the glove represent the following: grabber (starting off the story in a way that grabs the reader---she has a whole section on different ways to do this), problem or challenge, action, solution, "takeaway" ending--which is the lesson the main character learns by the end of the story. The book is full of prompt ideas for expository writing as well as fictional narrative writing. If you are familiar with the 6 traits of writing, she doesn't use that exact method, but I can find all the elements within her book. There are also checklists and assessment charts. The author, Melissa Forney, has a fun, engaging style that the students and teacher will appreciate. I HIGHLY recommend this book for elementary aged writing classes. I bought several different books to supplement my curriculum and I could have just bought this one and been done.

THE PROOF IS IN THE PUDDING! 94% OF MY SIXTH-GRADE STUDENTS MET OR EXCEEDED THE A.I.M.S. WRITING STATE ASSESSMENT THIS YEAR AFTER USING THIS BOOK! DID I MENTION MY SCHOOL IS A TITLE ONE SCHOOL? MORE THAN THAT WAS THE WRITING THAT MY STUDENTS PRODUCED. THEY USED ONOMATOPOEIA, STRONG VERBS, SIMILES, TAKE-AWAY ENDINGS. MY STUDENTS BECAME AUTHORS AND WERE INCREDIBLY PROUD OF THE WAY THEY COULD WRITE. THIS BOOK MAKES WRITING FUN FOR THE KIDS AND THE TEACHER. THE FIVE-MINUTE PLAYS WERE A HIT TOO! THE LISTS THAT THE KIDS COULD REFER BACK TO FOR STRONG VERBS, JUICY-COLORS, TRANSITIONAL PHRASES, ETC. MADE WRITING A BREEZE. KIDS HAVE AMAZING IDEAS---THEY JUST HAVE TO BE TAUGHT HOW TO GET THEM ON PAPER. BUY THIS BOOK!!!!! I HIGHLY RECOMMEND "GRAMMAR WITH A GIGGLE" TOO. "GRAMMAR WITH A GIGGLE" GIVES KIDS EXCELLENT VOCABULARY TO USE IN THEIR STORIES AND TEACHES GRAMMAR IN A FUN WAY.

I am a teacher at an online K-12 school. Writing is an area my 2nd and 3rd grade students really needed help with. I received permission from the publisher (on the phone and in writing) to use the book in my virtual classroom. The book is amazing, written with language kids can understand, full of examples to demonstrate a technique, and the lessons go well with teaching the six traits of writing. After teaching a good portion of the lessons found in the book, my students began writing more detailed and creative stories. They were willing to take chances and try new techniques. Highly recommend this book!

Pairing this with Caught'ya in the middle. Compliment each other well. Caught'ya series teaches proper grammer usage and has some great writing exercises in chap 4 & 5 as well as an excellent glossary in the back. RDW allows me to pick out some exciting writing exercises a couple times a week to improve her writing. She loves the lists it provides of strong verbs and colorful words that she can plug into her creating writing assignments. She understands that strong writing will set her apart from 90% of her peers in high school and college.

My wife got this book for her class to help her kids with their writing skills all in all a good addition to any teacher's resource library.

I absolutly love this book! It provides you with so many creative ideas and incorportes the skills that you are trying to teach your students. I teach 3rd grade and my students love it when I pull this book off the shelf. I also absolutly love her Dynamite Writing Ideas book. It was very helpful with getting organized and creating a writers workbook with the students, although my kids call them their author books. They really have found a love of writing with these skills and the way that they are presented!

I've used this book for almost a decade now and had to purchase a new copy because my old one was falling apart. I've encouraged a dozen others to use it over the years and everyone loves it. It's been successful with my third, fourth, and seventh graders. I love the word lists you can copy for your students. It's fantastic for mini-lessons and uses kid friendly language with great examples.