An integrated language arts and technology program engaged students in reading and writing activities that funded an experience in moviemaking. With video cameras in hand, students, often working collaboratively, developed expanded views of the writing and revision processes as they created movies that mattered to them and found an audience beyond…

This article considers three emergent themes from informal discussions with fourth and fifth graders about their book selections from the Vermont Children's Choice program. Twelve students were interviewed about how they selected books from the list. Student responses showed that they held the DCF nominee list in high regard, that they relied…

This article shares the voices of preadolescent girls as they participated in an eight-month book selection study which enabled them to be active agents in their book and reading experiences. The girls, school-identified as struggling readers and self-identified as resistant readers, complicate current notions of reading, as influenced by…

This paper describes diverse language learners' use of dialogue journaling in an elementary school setting. The author, a teacher researcher, conducted a qualitative research study with eight participants, ranging from fourth to sixth grade; all were learners adding English to their language repertoire. Through an in-depth analysis of student…

Describes how a teacher finds value in popular culture and violent writing by closely examining the writing of a student who laces his stories with explosions and battles. Finds that once he began to see the similarities between the media his student experiences, the writing the student prefers, and his own favorite media and writing, the teacher…

This article discusses children's experiences with a literacy project intended to celebrate the cultures represented in a highly diverse fourth/fifth grade urban elementary classroom. However, when other children questioned the claimed identities of three biracial children, the project was transformed from a rather straightforward attempt to…

Shares how a teacher, librarian, and fourth and fifth grade students collaborated and wrote book reviews for new books in their school library so other students could read about the new acquisitions. (MG)

Describes various ways of using children's questions as windows on their understandings and approaches to reading and writing tasks. Suggests that children need to know that questions are not signs of failure. (MM)