Observes that the tendency to question pushes some gifted students toward self-directed inquiry and supports their academic talent. Considers ways to nurture all students, especially the ones who don't question much on their own. Explores the author's experience in guiding her students toward becoming self-directed learners and guiding them to…

Notes that people's voices telling their own stories is the only true connection to the past. Describes how in their teachers' writing group, they listen to each others' stories. Considers how they offer support to each other when lessons fall flat and celebrate when they share the children's wonderful products. (SG)

Discusses how students in the author's classroom are challenged to think critically in a curriculum that focuses specifically on the health of the environment. Discovers that her own convictions about the importance of stewardship for the environment stood in stark contrast to the competitive, consumer-oriented values of the preadolescents in her…

Describes how a fifth-grade teacher, who had been sharing evaluation with her students for some time, made the change to writing report card comments together with her students, thus sharing evaluation in one more way. (SR)

Describes how a fourth/fifth-grade teacher helps her students discover their tapped and untapped potential through talk in a democratic, shared community of learners. Discusses how issues of sex bias, sex stereotypes, and prejudice and bigotry were addressed in this classroom community. (RS)

Considers different fifth-grade students' transformations through expressing themselves with poetry. Claims the content of children's writing suggests a complete revision of standard educational ideas about who the children are, what they know, how they think, and how much they can learn if teachers only know how to tap into their brilliance. (SC)

Describes how sketch journals are used at various times throughout the day and consistently throughout the year in the author's classroom. Presents a demonstration of the theme of experience and the powerful role that it can play in helping teachers improve. Notes how the author encourages students to reach deeper and to enter their own doorways…

Describes how a fourth-grade teacher uses a favorite picture book (Julius Lester's "John Henry") to lead students into reading like writers, thus giving them the opportunity to make the connection between published writing and their own. Shows how working with a brief passage from the book does this. Offers a brief list of books to be mentored by.…

Discusses techniques and lessons used to assist students in reading with a writer's eye, observing the world with a writer's eye, and developing the craft of writing, including the writer's notebook; grabber leads; show, not tell; unforgettable language; and voice. Notes that developing a community of writers is essential to the successful use of…

Discusses how miscue analysis informs two teachers' daily interactions with middle-grade students: how their teaching is transformed, how the structure of the day is changed, how they use reading conferences, and lessons from children. Appends a reading interview form, a record sheet for audio tapes, and a description of a strategy lesson on…

Notes that inquiry allows the author's students to learn on their own every day; it gives them the opportunity to investigate, explore, and discover the world around them by developing and using their own questions, thoughts, and interests. Concludes that her intention is to promote her students' feelings of self-esteem, success, self-worth, and…

Describes how a Title 1 lead teacher used the "hypothesis-test" approach with Joshua, a fifth-grade student from a "ravaged background" who was about two years behind in academic performance. Shows how, pursuing his inquiry, Joshua eventually became a strategic reader and a confident engaged learner. Notes that Joshua's turning point was also the…

Describes the author's work in his fifth-grade class as he helps his students understand the importance that culture plays in their representations of meaning. Shows how opportunities to transcend language by using other sign systems allow multiculturalism to flourish. Describes a schoolwide celebration of cultures through various arts and sign…

Describes the author's year-long analysis of one student's work to demonstrate her larger and ongoing research process in her classroom, as she investigated whether and how students were taking up the key inquiry-based processes that serve as a foundation for learning across disciplines in her classroom. (SR)

Describes a year-long fourth-grade unit of study on the genre of nonfiction. Notes that students' early writings lacked "voice." Discusses launching the genre study, choosing and researching a topic, drafting and revising, and publishing. Concludes that students reclaimed their writing voices as they tackled a range of diverse,…