"I" poems are motivating invitations to write that can engage students in preparing for or responding to reading. In composing "I" poems, students assume the identity and voice of a person, place, or object and write from that perspective. The first-person narrative point of view is the most important feature of an "I" poem. "I" poems can rhyme,…

The author argues that 20th-century children's poetry is often ignored and that the emphasis on teaching the adult poetry canon can give children mistaken ideas about what poetry is. Poetry is not a collection of "classics" whose meanings must be explained but something written to capture thoughts, feelings, and experiences. Ideas for teaching…

Describes two learning activities that help students understand the difference between main ideas and the topic of a paragraph or passage. (MG)

Presents an interview with Richard Peck. Notes that Peck was candid about his life and craft as a writer, offering glimpses into the creation of his work and the story behind his receipt of the Newbery Medal. Looks back at a life that led him to become a writer and provides insight into what his readers might expect from future projects. (SG)

"Of the many difficulties young writers may encounter when engaged in the complex act of writing, crafting sentences that accurately convey their intended meaning is particularly challenging. Sentence combining can provide systematic instruction in sentence-construction skills within an overall framework of the writing workshop."

This article discusses the need to engage students and teachers in active poetry writing. The authors document a process of learning how to practice poetry--one that is equally effective for teacher professional development, teacher self-study, preservice teacher education, and classroom implementation. By actually writing poetry individually,…

Relates the real-life experiences that prompted the author, the 1992 Newbery medalist, to write the novel "Shiloh." (PRA)

Offers comments from seven published "Reading Teacher" authors who have school affiliations on their experiences writing for professional publications. Encourages colleagues around the world to take the risk to likewise engage in this process. (MG)

The diversity of students in today's classrooms has highlighted the need for teachers to recognize differences in the way students learn to write, as well as in the cultural and social experiences they bring to the learning situation. This article profiles three students and demonstrates how they constructed and revised their writing in different…

Many approaches to literacy instruction treat language as an object of study. The curricular assumptions that inform such instruction are that language is located outside the person, extracted from context, neutral, and explicable through defined rules. An underlying assumption in many language arts classrooms is that children will not pay…

Suggests that children's writing is an excellent source of pertinent information about spelling and word recognition skills and analyzes one child's writing to demonstrate how an analysis of misspellings might proceed and how information obtained might be used to direct future instruction. (Author/RB)

Represents an exchange of "official notices" on the uses and misuses of workbooks in the teaching of writing. (MKM)

Provides directions for making four-page fold-a-books for children to use when authoring their own books. (MG)

Writing behaviors of grade 1 children were explored as they used word processors to support their writing. Information was gathered in the form of field notes and audiotape transcripts from classroom observation sessions, along with informal interviews with students and teachers. Themes which emerged from the data analysis suggested a combination…