Shows how the classroom environment provided by a second- grade teacher allowed one of her students to experience her own writing process and develop as a writer. (RL)

We persist in seeing writing as a method of moral development, not as an essential mode of communication; the eradication of error is more important than the encouragement of expression. We need to balance receiving and sending and to restore writing as an educational basic. (Author)

Describes how to become a better writing teacher, discussing strategies for students who do not finish their work, how to help children from other cultures write in their first language and in English, and how to help children with good ideas but poor writing and spelling skills. A game to help children understand conventions is included. (SM)

This report is one of a series of papers presented to a continuing in-house seminar on learning sponsored by the Ford Foundation. The paper reports on several schools where writing and individual expression are valued, identifies one approach to the teaching of writing, and addresses two central questions underlying the crisis of writing in the…

Teachers can encourage their elementary students to write by demonstrating writing themselves frequently throughout the day. The paper discusses how teachers can become more comfortable with their own writing in order to use it to teach, then offers suggestions on how to write in class and share it with students. (SM)