To write cohesively means doing many things at once-wrestling with ideas, balancing form and function, pushing words this way and that, attending to syntax and diction, and employing imagery and metaphor until a coherent message emerges. Though full of promise, student writing typically lacks cohesion. But does the fault lie in students or does the method of teaching writing lack the cohesion it expounds?

Carol Jago offers an approach that is the very example of the kind of cohesion she expects from her students' writing. Neither a lock-step lesson plan nor a simple recipe, it is an organized, coherent method that works by offering clear and complete guidelines for the most common types of writing: informational and persuasive writing, narrative writing, and writing about literature. Jago's method centers on her core beliefs:

• In order to learn to write, students must write.
• Authentic tasks and topics generate the most cohesive student writing.
• Students need both supportive and critical feedback.
• There is no cohesive writing without revision. Complete with worksheets, rubrics, and graphic organizers, plus student samples and stories that are both engaging and familiar, Jago's book provides the strategies for teaching writing that result in significant student growth.

Send a message to students that cohesive writing matters not only as preparation for high-stakes tests, but also as a tool for life. Teach them cohesively and cohesive writing will follow.

Carol Jago has taught English in middle and high school for 32 years and is associate director of the California Reading and Literature Project at UCLA. She served as president of the National Council of Teachers of English and chair of the College Board's English Academic Advisory committee. Carol has published many books with Heinemann including With Rigor for All: Meeting Standards for Reading Literature; Papers, Papers, Papers; Classics in the Classroom; and Cohesive Writing: Why Concept Is Not Enough. She has also published books on contemporary multicultural authors for NCTE. Carol wrote an education column for the Los Angeles Times, and her essays continue to appear in educational journals and online forums. Carol edits California English the journal of the California Association of Teachers of English and worked on the planning committee for the 2009 National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP) Reading Framework and the 2011 NAEP Writing Framework. She is a consulting author on the HMH Collections program. In 2015 Carol was awarded the International Literacy Association's Adolescent Literacy Thought Leader Award and in 2016 the CEL Exemplary Leadership Award. She has been named by the U.S. Department of Education to serve on the National Assessment Governing Board overseeing the NAEP assessments. She can be reached at cjago@caroljago.com or on Twitter @CarolJago . >> Listen to an interview with Carol Jago on Education Talk Radio - 2/23/2012 (34:20)