How should a teacher respond when a student makes off-base guesses about meaning in a literary text because that learner is trying to genuinely understand the story rather than find the "right" meaning? Aukerman argues that when teachers jump in to correct students' interpretations, they short-circuit students' processes of reading and thinking.…

When literacy specialist Jennifer Allen agreed to meet weekly with five boys who wanted to share their out-of-school writing with her, the weekly all-boys lunch-time writing group was born at Albert S. Hall elementary school in Waterville, Maine. She had intended to run the group as a writers' workshop and teach mini-lessons. But from the…