Notes that literature full of rich, specific vocabulary is the best source for teaching good writing. Briefly lists mini lessons that focus on encouraging the use of interesting words. (SR)

Presents and explains a framework that can be used to determine the potential authenticity of teaching practices. Describes the potential for authenticity offered by thematic literacy instruction. (SR)

Notes that competitions can excite and motivate students in reading and writing. Lists a sampling of such competitions, appropriate for students of all ages, and offers tips about participation. (SR)

Provides a paragraph frame as an organizational guide for developing reports from nonfiction children's magazines. (MG)

Voices concerns with isolated exercises in grammar. Offers an alternative, in which teachers collect sentences (mostly from literature) and use them to point out or teach skills for writers. Offers numerous examples. (SR)

Describes how a fourth-grade teacher made poetry part of the daily ritual of her class. Describes how students began to read poems, write poems, and love poems enough to work persistently at reading and writing them. Describes a poetry festival that the class prepared. Describes the many effects, both cognitive and affective, of daily poetry. (SR)

Argues that children's literature is a great tool for teaching writing in the elementary grades. Offers a list of fine children's literature the authors use to teach specific writing and "writerly" skills. (SR)

Describes a novel type of interactive writing called "interest journals" that motivates students and promotes persuasive writing. Discusses getting started, and the benefits of interest journals. (SR)

Describes a six-month project in a second grade classroom in which students wrote descriptive sentences to accompany the pictures in wordless picture books. Describes how this was done first as a whole class, then with partners, and finally individually. Notes that each story created in this fashion was read to someone. (SR)

Describes a successful writing activity to help students become confident reporters for a classroom newspaper. Notes that this assignment incorporates several writing styles and literary devices. (MG)

Describes an author's storyboard technique which elementary school students used as a prewriting strategy to roughly sketch out stories on the storyboard frames. Suggests that the technique helps students to plan and organize their stories and helps reluctant writers find the motivation to write. (SR)

Describes two writing activities for primary grade students to complete at home with the help of their parents. (MG)

Describes a sentence expansion technique found to be an effective and motivating way to teach sentence structure and vocabulary to elementary school students. (SR)

Suggests how a teacher of writing can cover curriculum and organize content to provide an environment in which children can create personal meaning through writing by using two common methods: webbing, which integrates content by theme, and the separation of content into time blocks. (EL)

Offers a procedure to help students develop effective strategies for using labeled diagrams in their research projects. (MG)