It all begins inside, inside the heads of our kids. There are ideas in there and language and lots of possibilities. Writing is a pulling together of that inside stuff. Writing is a rehearsal in meaning making. The teacher's role in all this is to support those rehearsals.

The first edition of this popular textbook was born out of notes such as this that a young professor and a young high school teacher wrote to each other about the teaching of writing. Dan Kirby and Tom Liner surprised themselves and the rest of academia by writing a book that other teachers found to be both entertaining and useful. The first and second editions of Inside Out have helped both preservice and in-service teachers to implement practical and authentic teaching techniques in their classrooms for the last twenty-plus years.

Now, the long-awaited third edition is at hand, this time with the addition of Dawn Latta Kirby's insightful work based on nearly 30 years of experience in teaching writing. Together the three authors have thoroughly updated Inside Out with the latest information on technology, a substantial reference section on resources, and loads of new examples. And they have gone a step further-they have rethought their fundamental assumptions about literacy and learning to write and have incorporated this innovative thinking into two new opening chapters and additional revisions throughout the book. They have introduced fresh concepts, overhauled some chapters, and added new ones so that the third edition includes:

• completely new material in the chapter on expository writing
• an updated chapter on poetry
• additional ideas about using portfolios, publishing student writing with and without computers, and working with young adult literature
• all-new resources in a chapter by Karen Hartman, Director of the Colorado Writing Project.

Still irreverent and skeptical of the conventional wisdom about teaching and learning, still abhorring corporate-strength writing pedagogies, these authors echo the voices of many teachers who remain committed to teaching to the needs of their students. Most of all, they give teachers the means to prove their belief that learning to write is not just for the few or the gifted.