A Michigan teacher involved her fourth-grade class in developing effective writing criteria by providing students with interesting writing samples and challenging them to select "plus" sentences from their own work to read in class. This modeling technique helped students recognize good writing and gain appreciation of the standards for…

Researchers found that a Washington State fourth-grade teacher successfully met the demands of standards-based writing instruction without compromising her teaching stance or diverse students' learning. She instituted 15-minute class meetings to address student problems, read aloud from books with relevant characters, and used innovative,…