"By the time you finish reading this book, you'll have a solid plan for spending an appropriate amount of time on language topics that will move kids forward in their spoken and written expression, their ability to talk about language in technical ways using appropriate terminology, and their understanding of language in its social, cultural, and historical contexts."

mechanics-the conventions of written language traditional grammar instruction-simple and accurate ways to think about parts of speech, sentence types, and verb tenses usage-why some ways that people speak are considered "wrong," and how teachers can help kids understand and control their choices in spoken and written language language and social justice-how knowledge of language variation can help us treat all children fairly and support English language learners linguistics-how to explore language in interesting ways: its nature, history, and geography.

Sandra Wilde, Ph.D., is the author of numerous Heinemann professional books including Quantity & Quality and Funner Grammar as well as the firsthand classroom resource Strategic Spelling. She is widely recognized for her expertise in developmental spelling and her advocacy of holistic approaches to spelling and phonics. She is Professor of Curriculum and Teaching at Hunter College, City University of New York. She is best known for her work in invented spelling, phonics and miscue analysis. She specializes in showing teachers how kids' invented spellings and miscues can help us work with them in more sophisticated and learner-centered ways. Looking at what kids do as they read and write is at the heart of Sandra's presentations and workshops. She can do lively keynote presentations that highlight the interesting things that we can learn by paying close attention to students' invented spellings and miscues, as well as workshops of varying lengths that focus on student-centered teaching of spelling and phonics. She has recently begun offering workshops that focus on understanding students' miscues as a guide to appropriate instruction, particularly for struggling readers. She lives in New York City. Sandra is quoted in this Huffington Post article about trends in grammar instruction in the Common Core era.