Discusses how a teacher was challenged to outgrow previously held beliefs about children and broaden her verbocentric curricular assumptions and experiences by a student for whom art stabilized and gave shape to his thoughts. Notes that the student helped bring real meaning to the idea that learning is "multimodal" in nature. (RS)

Examines some of the assumptions behind the imitation of writing models and questions the power of using this model for improving writing performance. (HTH)

Analyzes writing samples of a child's letters to her aunt over a period of a year and a half to show how writing and reading influence each other. (SR)

Describes how the writing of a favorite author helped a child accomplish what she wanted in her own writing. Discusses the classroom environment that encouraged the child's writing. (HTH)

Examines progressively more competent writing samples from a third grader's journal to illustrate the possibilities for using journals "across the curriculum." (HTH)

Describes how, in a second-/third-grade classroom, and in the context of writing workshop, another kind of community developed--an informal but long-lasting "writing club" with eight core members who worked collaboratively and developed a story topic that became the dominant story topic pattern throughout the remainder of the school year. (SR)

Explores four drafts of a child's story about the disappearance of television, showing how the later draft suggests the writer's interest in questions about the nature of reality, and how the student grew as writer. (HTH)

Describes the setbacks and remarkable progress in one student's writing and attitudes as the result of focusing on the writing process in a one-to-one tutorial relationship. (HTH)

Describes one third grader's development as a writer as she participated in classroom writing workshops (peer and teacher feedback) and, in particular, her development as a reviser of her writing. (HTH)

Discusses one teacher's gradual acceptance of poetry as a useful means for teaching many areas of the language arts. Includes a case study of one student's growth as a poet. (HTH)

Offers a portrait of an inspiring teacher who created an environment of celebration for a group of students repeating first grade. Shows how these students achieved beyond what they or others thought was possible, relishing and sharing their newly acquired literacy abilities. (SR)

Reports on successfully using letter writing and dialogue journals in a classroom where the children's writing tended to be remarkable similar because they did not insert their personalities into their writing. Their writing grew individualistic, and their vocabularies improved through invented spelling. (SKC)

Describes how the author participated in her son Carl's writing process at home when she realized his growing resistance to writing in school in the second grade. Examines the in-class composing process and Carl's frustrations. Describes how she became Carl's scribe at home as he gradually discovered that writing could be a symbolic representation…

Describes a second-grade teacher-researcher's efforts to foster her Latino/a students' growth in writing. Focuses on her strategies (sometimes successful, sometimes not) to make the tacit aspects of writing explicit to her bilingual students via classroom talk. Searches for the right measure of explanation in two areas: fostering revision and…

Describes the reading and writing progress of one second-grade student. He moved from writing impersonal narratives to personal tales in which he created a role/self image, and he learned to see himself in literature. Eventually he learned to write to a specific audience as well. (SKC)