Writing America: Classroom Literacy and Public Engagement Edited by Sarah Robbins and Mimi Dyer, foreword by Paul Lauter (2004) This book tells the story of how Georgia-based National Writing Project teachers and their students used the study of their community to build their own community—one committed to the stewardship of communal spaces and ideas. The book details the students' inquiry-based studies of topics as diverse as the area's Cherokee heritage and the redevelopment of Atlanta. Readers will be inspired to help their own students create engaging projects that take literacy from an isolated skill to a socially relevant enterprise. Teachers College Press and the National Writing Project.

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Writing Our Communities: Local Learning and Public Culture Edited by Dave Winter and Sarah Robbins (2005) Emphasizing student inquiry and writing, this rich collection offers teachers ready-to-use classroom resources with a sound basis in best practice. Student engagement with community becomes the centerpiece of the book, an engagement that takes place across disciplines through projects involving history, environment, culture and more. These lively, classroom- tested lessons are easily adapted to different teaching levels and settings. The book also effectively addresses curricular guidelines specific to local, regional and state settings, as well as to national standards. The result-this collection of the favorite lessons developed by an inquiry team of teachers and students, for application beyond their individual experience. Whether you're searching for brief exercises to introduce community studies in the classroom or for extended units, this book is a rich resource for your classroom, helping your students write about their communities while exploring, re-creating, discovering or rediscovering, reclaiming, preserving, and building these communities. NCTE and the National Writing Project.

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