Developing and implementing curriculum that is relevant, challenging, integrative, and exploratory is central to successful middle grades education (Erb, 2005; Jackson & Davis, 2000; National Middle School Association [NMSA], 2003, 2010). However, as one language arts teacher suggests, it can be difficult to create curricula that meet these…

Describes how writing with specifics can transform poetry, helping to create vivid pictures in the reader's mind. Offers three of the author's own poems that illustrate the judicious use of detail. (SR)

Describes how a fourth-grade teacher made poetry part of the daily ritual of her class. Describes how students began to read poems, write poems, and love poems enough to work persistently at reading and writing them. Describes a poetry festival that the class prepared. Describes the many effects, both cognitive and affective, of daily poetry. (SR)

Talks about the "writing from the heart" practiced in one sixth-grade classroom by students and teacher, for many different purposes. Describes instructional approaches that encourage such writing. (SR)

Claims that what matters in classroom writing instruction is an authentic, supportive audience. Shares results from a study of a combined grades 5-6 classroom. Finds that students felt successful as writers when peers evaluated their prose positively. States that the students' knowledge that their writing evoked emotional response from their peers…

Results of a study of 93 sixth graders indicated that peer feedback seemed to have positive effects on writing quality. Findings also suggest that students are able to significantly improve surface structure quality within a multiple-draft process both with and without the benefit of peer feedback. (IAH)

Suggests implementing a pen pal program using students in the same school or from a school in the same district as a way to encourage written communication among elementary school students. (HTH)

Describes storytelling and imagemaking activities used in The Stories Project to provide a guide for teachers who wish to promote the development of oral and written language through storymaking--the process of making a story from a story. Finds that most students, regardless of ability, and given the right encouragement and support, discover they…

Describes a drama-based language arts unit taught to a fifth grade class. Provides empirical evidence that drama as a strategy of instruction embedded within a writing/language arts unit helps students improve their writing. Suggests continued research and development of drama as a strategy of instruction. (PM)

Offers a brief look at a graduate student's on-line correspondence with three sixth-grade pen pals. Offers advice about adult-student pen pal relationships. (SR)

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…

Explores how dialog writing, in which two participants "converse in writing," incorporates the interactive aspects of oral communication and the self-directed aspects of essay writing. Includes passages written over a year's time by a sixth grade student in a "dialogue journal" showing the development of his writing. (HTH)

A study of 58 students in fifth grade (4 with disabilities) examined consequences of a statewide performance assessment program using Curriculum-Based Measurement. Results found significant gains in written expression, but no progress in reading, and concluded that this probably reflected increased time in writing activities in preparation for the…

Examines the effect of key concept mapping strategies on reading comprehension and writing performance of fifth grade students using basal reading materials. Concludes that key concept mapping enhances comprehension of factual/informative text, but has no effect on written composition. Finds that literary mapping strategies enhanced neither…