Rebecca G. Harper combines play and purpose throughout Writing Workouts, Grades 6–12: Strategies to Build Students’ Writing Skills, Stamina, and Success. Using the analogy of fitness training throughout the book, she brilliantly explains the importance of each component. The accompanying lessons and ideas follow a format that is not only easy to follow but also relevant and meaningful. Full of current and relatable resources, teachers will find inspirational and turnkey ideas in Harper’s latest book—ideas that will bring laughter, engagement, joy, and learning to the students in their classrooms.

Rebecca G. Harper has created the hyper-practical guide I wish I had had as an early-career writer’s coach. I love the emphasis on writing as a discipline and growth as the fruit of practice. There is a lot to play with and try in this volume.

Rebecca G. Harper cleverly leads us to rethink how we teach writing. She reminds us of the recursive nature of writing and demonstrates how writers move through their process not in a regimented lockstep but in a focused and deliberate manner with attention to various aspects at different times. Harper has created an impressive collection of strategies that students can use to build their writing muscles wherever they are in their process. Writing Workouts, Grades 6–12 is a book you’ll return to over and over as you plan instruction and confer with individual writers.

Developing as a writer is a hard lift for many students. Luckily, we now have Rebecca G. Harper’s Writing Workouts, Grades 6–12—an all-in-one guide for helping students develop the writing fitness needed to engage in such a difficult journey. Offering both an innovative framework and hundreds of practical resources and writing lessons, this is that rare writing-instruction book that offers clever and effective lessons and tips that will improve one’s lessons today and thought-provoking larger suggestions to improve one’s overall approach to writing instruction.