Note: This is the loose-leaf version of Lanuage Arts and does not include access to the Enhanced Pearson eText. To order the Enhanced Pearson eText packaged with the loose-leaf version, use ISBN 0134059808.

This is a new edition of a best-selling, exceptionally applied look at how to teach elementary language arts effectively in every classroom, for all students. Language Arts: Patterns of Practice, 9/e sets the bar for K-8 language arts methods texts, not only for its coverage of the six language arts–listening, talking, reading, writing, viewing, and visually representing–but also for its presentation of the instructional approaches (patterns of practice) teachers use to integrate the teaching of language arts within literacy instruction. Author Gail Tompkins, well known her accessible and practical presentation of information, includes complete descriptions about and strategies for teaching reading and writing workshop, literature focus units, literature circles, and thematic units. The book features chapter-opening vignettes that showcase classroom teaching, mini-lessons that demonstrate how to teach language arts concepts, and step-by-step details on a variety of instructional procedures, all presented in an easy-to-follow manner that shows how the concepts apply to the classroom. New to this edition is the pervasive and specific alignment of Common Core Standards for English Language Arts to classroom practice, including classroom examples and features that identify how the standards can be met using specific methods. The Enhanced Pearson eText features embedded video, interactive step-by-step instructional procedures, and assessments.

Improve mastery and retention with the Enhanced Pearson eText*
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*The Pearson eText App is available on Google Play and in the App Store. It requires Android OS 3.1-4, a 7” or 10” tablet, or iPad iOS 5.0 or later. 

Gail E. Tompkins is Professor Emerita at California State University, Fresno. Currently, she works with teachers in their kindergarten through eighth-grade classrooms and leads staff-development programs on reading and writing. Dr. Tompkins, degreed with a language arts focus, was inducted into the California Reading Association’s Reading Hall of Fame in recognition of her accomplishments in the field of reading. She received the prestigious Provost’s award for Excellence in Teaching at California State University, Fresno. Dr. Tompkins is the author of six other books published by Pearson Education: Teaching Writing: Balancing Process and Product, 50 Literacy Strategies (a balance of language arts and literacy strategies), and Literacy in the 21st Century: A Balanced Approach including two grade-specific versions of this text: Literacy in the Early Grades: A Successful Start for PreK-4 Readers and Writers and Literacy in the Middle Grades: Teaching Reading and Writing to Fourth Through Eighth Graders. During the past three decades, Dr. Tompkins has also worked with kindergarten through college-level writing teachers at National Writing Project sites in California and Oklahoma.

Part 1 New Expectations: Today’s Language Arts Classroom