In Write Like This: Teaching Real World Writing Through Modeling and Mentor Texts, author and teacher Kelly Gallagher recognizes that writing well starts with teaching students WHY they should write. He believes we need to move beyond the state standards by introducing young writers to real-world discourses and provide them with authentic texts to influence and develop life-long skills.

Each chapter focuses on a specific writing purpose:

• Express and Reflect: View life experiences in reverse to move forward
• Inform and Explain: State a point and purpose with information to support it
• Evaluate and Judge: Focus on the worth of an object, idea, or person and present it as "bad" or "good"
• Inquire and Explore: Propose a problem or question
• Analyze and Interpret: Examine phenomena that are difficult to understand or explain
• Take a Stand/Propose a Solution: Persuade audience to particular position and provide justification

In teaching these lessons, Gallagher provides mentor texts (professional samples as well as models he has written in front of his students), student writing samples, and numerous assignments and strategies proven to elevate student writing.

By helping teachers bring effective modeling practices into their classrooms, Write Like This enables students to become better adolescent writers. More important, the practices found in this book will help our students develop the writing skills they will need to become adult writers in the real world.