Standards can aid educators as they work to produce strong student writers who can create meaningful and skillfully crafted authentic pieces of writing. This once-a-month, yearlong professional development program, conducted during the school day, shifted a district's kindergarten writing program to a writing workshop model that enabled the…

Reports preliminary findings from a study of kindergartners using LOGO in a computer laboratory. The study highlights the oral language that occurs while children produce computer graphics. (HTH)

Describes a teacher's metamorphosis from a controlling kindergarten teacher to one who recognized that children already have a great deal of language and print awareness and who could assist them in self-directed learning by giving their language instruction a context. (HTH)

Reports on observations of five preschool children in the home and kindergarten classrooms, which indicated that while children initiate literacy experiences in the home, they become passive in the mediated environment of the school. (HTH)

Contrasts, through portraits of five young writers, the writing strategies of children used at home and in a kindergarten writing center that stressed a formal language arts program. Argues that the teacher's approach to writing instruction and the child's writing strategies must be compatible to ensure independent writers. (HTH)