Fellag, L. R. (2010). From reading to writing 3. White Plains, NY: Pearson Education.

Each lesson starts with high-interest passages for students to read. Some of the topics are health, clothing, brain research, leisure activities including paintball, six degrees of separation, financial planning, and Generation Y (born 1976-1990). These timeless subjects provide information that are appealing for both teen and adult learners. The vocabulary is corpus-based and taken from the Academic Word List, General Service List, and Most Common English Idioms List (Coxhead, 2000; Liu, 2003).

The reading passages, vocabulary, and additional activities act as a stepping stone for ESL students to create their own writing. The writing assignments follow step-by-step instructions infused with all stages of the writing process. For instance, having identified the main idea and details in the text, the students are asked to write topic sentences for detail paragraphs in a guided exercise. Later they are encouraged to come up with their own topic sentences for their paragraphs.

In addition to the classroom textbook, From Reading to Writing 3 includes access to an online evaluative tool designed by Educational Testing Services called ProofWriter, which provides students with individualized feedback on usage, grammar, mechanics, and style. With the help of this tool, teachers are freed to focus on higher-level writing skills such as ideas and organization. Each book comes with a coupon code that students can use 16 times. When these times are used up, they can “recharge” their coupon code online at http://longman.proofwriter.ets.org to purchase up to 100 additional sessions An online Teacher’s Manual includes an answer key for the activities in the textbook and also unit tests. (The manual is not available for review, so exactly how it complements the text could not be assessed.)

From Reading to Writing 3 has eight units of two chapters each. Each chapter is divided into two parts: Reading and Writing. In the first part, pre-reading activities “build schema” and introduce “key vocabulary” (p. vii). These activities include discussion questions for pairs or small groups and skimming for main ideas and details. The following “bridge” section titled “From Reading to Writing” encourages students to reflect on the content of the reading passages and to activate their vocabulary as a preparation for writing. The activities in this section range from small-group discussions to journal reflections. The writing section provides a mentor text for students to see what they are required to create. Specific instructions follow the mentor text to guide students toward conciseness in their own compositions. The section “Writing Assignment” leads students step by step to construct their own writing, from ideas and organization to revision and editing to writing the final copy. Because the online evaluative tool supports students individually, it also promotes self-evaluation.

A scope-and-sequence table at the beginning provides a brief visual summary of the whole book, showing which reading and writing skills are covered in each chapter. Additional reference materials on such topics as avoiding plagiarism, grammar reference, correction symbols, and vocabulary review are located at the end of the textbook. Vocabulary review provides additional practice for the words targeted in the chapters employing different strategies, such as multiple-choice questions, matching, and filling in the blanks. The bridge sections refer the students to this additional resource to assist in activating vocabulary. A Target Vocabulary section provides a list of the words covered in each chapter as a quick reference. The words are marked with an asterisk to demonstrate in which word list they are included (see references below).

Third in a series of four books, From Reading to Writing provides pre-academic English learners with instruction from sentence patterns to language usage so they can utilize these skills in their own composition. The continuous focus on main idea, supporting details, and transition words/phrases prepares the students to write successful texts. The simple and easy-to-follow format of the book clarifies the connection between reading and writing better than most textbooks available in the market.

From Reading to Writing is a succinct and focused textbook series that will enable English learners to grasp the basics for writing effectively, from simple sentences to longer essays. Carefully selected passages promote and clarify the inseparable link between reading and writing. The cyclical review of the vocabulary helps learners internalize the academic words they will encounter in their studies. The straightforward presentation of the material offers a clear explanation of complicated concepts, such as inference, cohesive devices, and literary terms. Because most ESL learners struggle with language usage and sentence fluency in general, this series uses the mentor texts as a springboard to help students gain confidence in their own compositions.

The textbook does not require intensive front-loading to activate prior knowledge. The activities offer sufficient background information so even the most novice teacher of writing would be able to pick up the book and teach from it. The nonthreatening format may help reduce the level of anxiety a learner might have regarding reading and writing in a second language.

REFERENCES

Coxhead, A. (2000). “A New Academic Word List.” TESOL Quarterly, 34, 213-238.

Liu, D. (2003). “The Most Frequently Used Spoken American English Idioms: A Corpus Analysis and Its Implications.” TESOL Quarterly, 37, 671-700.

Meryem D. Kennedy, merduvken@gmail.com, has been working with English language learners for almost 20 years, both nationally and internationally. As a second-language speaker herself, she adds a unique perspective to the review of this book. Meryem is a Central Arizona Writing Project Fellow and currently teaches high school ESL in Phoenix, Arizona.