Book excerpt: In Lessons That Change Writers, Nancie has narrowed and deepened her conversation with teachers, to focus on the minilesson as a vehicle for helping students improve their writing. She shares over a hundred of these writing lessons which are described by her students as "the best of the best." The lessons fall into the following four categories that provide the structure for this book: Lessons about Topics: ways to develop ideas for pieces of writing that will matter to writers and to their readers Lessons about Principles of Writing: ways to think and write deliberately to create literature Lessons about Genre: in which we observe and name the ways that good free verse poems, formatted poetry, essays, short stories, memoirs, thank-you letters, profiles, parodies, and book reviews work and Lessons about Conventions: what readers' eyes and minds have been trained to expect, and how marks and forms function to give writing more voice and power and to make reading predictable and easy. Lessons That Change Writers includes: A book with over a hundred minilessons, along with the theory behind each lesson Online Resources that include of hundreds of reproducibles: overheads of principles, approaches, rules, and examples readings for your students classroom posters of essential quotations for aspiring writers examples of work by Nancie's kids-student writings that illustrate the lessons and will instruct and inspire your student writers