Join Deborah E. Louis, President of Louis Educational Concepts and owner of the Jane Schaffer Writing Program®, as she welcomes you to the JSWP’s video library, Study Hall. In this introductory video, Deborah shares her personal journey from a career in marketing and advertising to becoming a hig...

In this video, Deborah Louis, Ph.D. and owner of the Jane Schaffer Writing Program®, shares the remarkable life and legacy of Jane Schaffer, the visionary educator behind JSWP™. With her humor and captivating stories, Jane inspired a generation of teachers to revolutionize the way writing was tau...

When districts, departments, or committees adopt and implement a new writing program, everyone involved benefits by knowing why this decision is a good choice.

So, "Why Jane Schaffer?"

Since 1984, the Jane Schaffer Writing Program® has been a staple in hundreds of classrooms across the nation a...

Dr. Louis explains the philosophy behind the structure of a Jane Schaffer® body paragraph and how it lays the foundation for organized and logical writing.

We color-code the paragraph and the essay. The kinesthetic approach to learning is well documented and helps students to master content. We asked one seventh-grade student why he liked using the colored pens. He said, “They help me remember what kind of thoughts I need to include and where to put...

In this video, Dr. Louis addresses how JSWP™ correlates to state and national standards.

One of the cornerstones of the program’s success is the gradual release of responsibility methodology:

“I do it"

"We do it together."

"You do it."

We use this strategy in our workshops with our teachers. And we hope that you will follow this methodology with your students, as well.

We start...

Knowing how to collaborate in a classroom setting with teachers or students can be the difference in an engaging learning or a boring lesson. Learn the seven norms of collaboration in this video to help you work collectively with your group.

Materials Needed: The Analytical Response to Literature Teacher's Guide, Student Masters, and a set of blue, red, green, and black pens.

In this short video, Dr. Louis will provide viewers with a roadmap to the response to literary video series.

Materials Needed: pp. 27 and 41 in your Analytical Response to Literature guide; set of pens.

How many times must we remind our students to indent their paragraphs? In this video, you'll learn how to explain to your students why indenting is so important.

Materials Needed: pp. 27 and 41 in your Analytical Response to Literature guide; set of pens. Participants will copy the sentence provided on p. 27 and take notes on p. 41.

The Topic Sentence (TS) is the first sentence in a body paragraph. For literary analysis, the topic sentence is not a summa...

Materials Needed: pp. 27 and 41 in your Analytical Response to Literature guide; set of pens. Participants will copy the sentence provided on p. 27 and take notes on p. 41.

Sentences of Concrete Detail (CD) answer the literary questions, Who? What? When? Where? What happens in the story? They ar...

Materials Needed: pp. 27 and 41 in your Analytical Response to Literature guide; set of pens. Participants will copy the sentence provided on p. 27 and take notes on p. 41.

Commentary (CM), the missing piece, the “so what?”, was born one day during a one-to-one conference with a gifted junior. H...

Materials Needed: pp. 27 and 41 in your Analytical Response to Literature guide; set of pens. Participants will copy the sentence provided on p. 27 and take notes on p. 41.

The last sentence in a body paragraph is called a Concluding Sentence (CS). For literary responses, the CS is all commentar...

Materials Needed: pp. 27 and 41 in your Analytical Response to Literature guide; set of pens. Participants will copy the sentence provided on p. 27 and take notes on p. 41.

A chunk is the combination of concrete detail and commentary. It describes the part of the response to literature paragraph...

Materials Needed: p. 37 in your Analytical Response to Literature guide; set of pens. Great handout for students.

Knowing the difference between concrete details and commentary helps students to compose paragraphs and essays with specific, relevant, and appropriate evidence as well to share thei...

p. 27 and p. 60 in your Analytical Response to Literature guide is where you'll find the Cinderella prompt; set of pens. Follow along as Dr. Louis teaches you the first step in student writing success.

Once students have learned the JSWP® terms and colors, learning how to “decode” a prompt is th...

Once students know the JSWP™ terms and colors, the next step is to learn the process. Remember, writing is about thinking, and students must learn how to ask questions of the text and of themselves. Each step in the process addresses multiple standards-based skills, so students need to take their...

“Participant Handouts,” a companion packet of the Analytical Response to Literature guide is where you’ll find the prompt for “To Sleep Under the Stars” by Carol Shaw Graham; set of pens. Follow along as Dr. Louis guides you through the first step in the student writing process.

Learning how to ...

p. 75 in the Analytical Response to Literature guide is where you’ll find the passage for “To Sleep Under the Stars”; red and green pens. Follow along as Dr. Louis models this step in the process.

So often, students do not know what to look for when reading the text, much less how to annotate it...

p. 77 in the Analytical Response to Literature guide is where you’ll find the graphic organizer known as “Gathering CDs and CMs”; red and green pens. Follow along as Dr. Louis models this step in the process.

Knowing how to choose relevant, specific, and appropriate details is an integral compon...

p. 81 in the Analytical Response to Literature guide is where you’ll find the graphic organizer known as the “T-Chart”; pen set. Follow along as Dr. Louis models this step in the process.

The T-Chart is the Graphic Organizers that arranges preliminary decisions from the previous “Gathering CDs ...

pp. 82-83 in the Analytical Response to Literature guide is where you’ll find the “Web-off-the-Word” (“WOW”) chart; pen set. Follow along as Dr. Louis models this step in the process.

Generating commentary is one of the most difficult tasks for students because they are being asked to devise ori...

p. 85 in the Analytical Response to Literature guide is where you’ll find the “Web-off-the-Topic Sentence” (“WOTS”) Chart; pen set. Follow along as Dr. Louis models this step in the process.

The final sentence in a body paragraph is the Concluding Sentence. It is designed to provide readers with...

pp. 86 in the Analytical Response to Literature guide is where you’ll find the Shaping Sheet; pen set. Follow along as Dr. Louis models this step in the process.

Once students complete the T-Chart, the WOW Chart, and the WOTS chart, they have their first draft completed. Now, the time has come t...

When it comes to assessing students’ work, we recommend that teachers weigh the process of thinking and drafting rather than only assessing the final draft. Especially during the first semester, teachers are more likely to coach and facilitate writing during each step of the process to help stude...

pp. 101-02 in your Analytical Response to Literature guide; set of pens.

Students often ask, "How many sentences do you want me to write for the introduction?" In this video, Dr. Louis explains her ten percent rule. Then, Dr. Louis guides students to writing a thesis statement. The thesis for li...

pp. 154 and 157-58 in the Analytical Response to Literature guide is where you’ll find “Discovering Theme” and the Introduction graphic organizers; black pen. Follow along as Dr. Louis models this step in the process.

The introduction is an important part of an essay because it captures the read...

p. 160 in the Analytical Response to Literature guide is where you’ll find the Conclusion graphic organizer; black pen. Follow along as Dr. Louis models this step in the process.

The purpose of a conclusion is to 1) reflect on the major points of the essay without renaming them or adding new inf...

How boring would it be to have an essay titled, “Essay.” After spending so much time creating and laboring over this wonderful piece, students should take just a little more time to produce a creative, thoughtful, and maybe ironic or humorous or curious title.