The overarching purpose of writing is to communicate. As such, the intended audience is a critical consideration for writers. However, elementary school writing instruction commonly neglects the role of the audience. Typically, children are asked to compose a piece of text without a specific audience in mind that is usually evaluated by the…

The practice of translanguaging offers emergent bilinguals the opportunity to access their full linguistic repertoire. This qualitative study uses the lenses of dynamic bilingualism and idiolect, or one's own unique language patterns, to explore emergent bilinguals' translanguaging and reading comprehension strategies during a reading think-aloud,…

This study explored how an audience-focused writing curriculum mediated the literacy development of bilingual Latina/o first-grade students. Drawing on translingual theories of literacy and scholarship describing the role of audience and audience awareness in skilled writing, this study qualitatively documented and analyzed students' writing and…

The Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects (CCSS) emphasize the importance of writing and specify that students should write for external, and, at times, unfamiliar audiences. Given the relationship between audience specification and quality writing in older…

Weblogs or blogging may foreground audience needs for a written work and help novice authors grow in audience awareness and elicit and use audience feedback. A case study of a second-grade classroom compared students' growing audience awareness and the ways they addressed audience needs. Analysis of student written work, students' comments to…