As a student, Peter Stillman felt discouraged and alienated from the act of writing. As a teacher, he discovered his own students experiencing the same feelings. Frustrated by the lack of a text that would help students write about their world in a way that encouraged and rewarded them, he wrote Writing Your Way.
Stillman believes that there isn't a student who, with the right encouragement, can't write and furthermore who, sooner or later, doesn't love doing it. By inviting students to write from their experiences and intuitions, and making the most of their willingness to put something of themselves on paper, Writing Your Way makes better, even eager, writers out of them all.
Based on the idea that students have something to say and have within them the ability to write, this text helps students find their own voices. Stillman's approach is emphatically process oriented, stressing prewriting, revision, and peer group writing. Since learning to write requires continual practice, there are opportunities in each of the twenty-six chapters to write and discover the process that suits the individual best. Writing becomes an everyday act that can be gratifying in both personal and academic domains.
The self-contained chapters are meaningful and helpful when read in any order; they can be assigned and used freely. Students and teachers can return to chapters that worked well, and experiment with new chapters out of order without worrying about missing a critical step.
Writing Your Way was written for any secondary student, but is recommended especially for ninth and tenth graders.
Peter R. Stillman is the author of Write Away!, Families Writing, Planting by the Moon, and Writing Your Way, Second Edition (a classroom edition of Write Away!). He holds an M.A. from the Bread Loaf School of English, Middlebury College, and lives in upstate New York. Peter Stillman January 23, 1934 - February 5, 2011 We are sad to report the passing of Peter Stillman, Editor and then Publisher for Boynton-Cook. Peter cared passionately about writing and the teaching of writing. Working with longtime business partner, Bob Boynton, Peter was responsible for numerous significant contributions to education, including the publication of Nancie Atwell's groundbreaking book, In the Middle. Those of us who knew him personally recall him as a true old-fashioned Publisher - a diligent reader of manuscripts, challenging authors to step up and define new areas of the field. After departing Heinemann/Boynton-Cook, Peter kept a close eye on both us and his authors, visiting the booth regularly at conferences to share a joke or a story. He will be sorely missed by those who knew and worked with him, and by those who have tended his legacy over the ensuing years. Remembering how Peter touched your life
