Analyzes the creative writing of 94 second-grade children in a suburban elementary school, comparing boys' and girls' creative writings when the composition was elicited from realistic fiction, fantasy, and fantasy in conjunction with stuffed animals and wind-up toys. Also examines the combined creativity of boys' and girls' compositions and the…

The purpose of this study was to investigate predictors of early writing for low-income, urban students. Drawing on research and theory characterizing literacy development as a complex, integrative process, the author analyzed growth in the descriptive writing of students in Grades 1-3. The participants were 309 low-income children enrolled in 16…

A case study traces the evolution of "once-upon-a-time" in a child's classroom story writing, drawing upon data collected in a three-year study of writing development in an urban magnet school. The subject, Mitzi, is observed from kindergarten through second grade. The study assumes that stories are cultural discourse forms that serve…