The Art of Teaching Writing by Lucy McCormick Calkins is a lengthy, 500+ pages, and appears to be a textbook for the author's students. However, McCormick Calkins is a teacher and mentor for the Writing Project and promotes Writing Project premises in her book. The book, published in 1994, indicates that the Writing Project principles have withstood the test of time.
The author tested my time constraints with excessive examples and digressions and I thought the book was most suited to those teaching in the elementary grades. That being said, I thought the book was excellent as a reference book. If you change grades and need some input, or need to know what student expectations should be, this is the book. Calkins had some very nice examples of student editing sheets, and fine examples of student response/grading sheets. There was also a chapter devoted to writing assessment which I found useful. I didn't like the book enough to pay full price for a new copy. But, I intend to actively look for it on the used book market and use it for reference.
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