This book brings together the perspectives of teachers, administrators, consultants, and researchers on teaching writing to create a bridge between theory and practice. The book's 11 chapters are organized into three sections that tackle some persistent knots of writing instruction and assessment. Under Section I-Students' and Teachers' Learning…

This book is designed to help students in elementary school identify core literary concepts such as character development, setting development, and plot development in the books they read, then integrate what they have learned into their own writing. The underlying assumption is that the reader is somewhat familiar with the 5-step writing process:…

Examines the benefits of reader response by means of student letters to authors. Notes that students involved in response writing become more interested in reading, are more reflective individuals, and more responsible for monitoring and resolving their own questions. (SD)

This casebook is part of a set of materials written by the members of the Making Thinking Visible Project. It presents the multiple perspectives of various members of the project (high school, college, and community college teachers) as they began to use collaborative planning in unique and different ways. It offers 21 articles in three sections…

Idea development is a concrete skill that can be taught in a systematic way. This step-by-step guidebook provides educators in all content areas with the tools they need to help students think more critically and write with more fully developed ideas. The guide (authored by instructors with the Kentucky Writing Program) offers the…

Presents information learned from the planning and implementation of a Writer's Academy. Describes structures for writing as well as six useful lessons learned pertaining to: (1) teacher conferences; (2) peer conferences; (3) exploring the world; (4) writing with students; (5) valuing the process and the product to address national standards; and…

Writing and discussion are excellent ways for students to master content, develop analytical abilities, and become active and collaborative learners. The Writing Across the Curriculum movement offers a theoretical framework for the use of writing in instruction, maintaining that writing skills are primarily thinking skills, that writing is a…

The approach of parody writing dates back to ancient Greece. Unlike traditional parody that usually develops satire of an author's work, a form of primary parody writing can be used in the classroom to help children develop connections with text as they express their own ideas. Parody writing is useful with children in grade 3 and has potential…

A study examined the influence of coauthoring on the writing process in the classroom. Subjects were 24 students in a ninth-grade English class at a racially and socioeconomically diverse high school located in a medium-sized Midwestern city. Data was collected over the first 9-week quarter of the year. Eight collaborative writing triads,…

An instructional study examined whether teaching strategies related to planning and reviewing behaviors would affect planning, reviewing, revising, and producing texts. Training texts were examined using a multiple baseline across participants design with multiple probes in baseline. During baseline and in intervention phases, two highly capable…

A program was developed and implemented to improve and motivate students' writing in the elementary grades. Research data suggests probable causes for lack of student motivation and progress in writing. These causes include: overloaded and product driven curriculum, lack of appropriate teacher training, time-consuming and subjective grading…

Conducted in a kindergarten and first-grade combination classroom, a study examined two differing introductions to proposed journal entries, written after students listened to two stories of narrative fiction. Both stories were written by Margaret and H.A. Rey and focus upon Curious George as the main character. During the first phase of the data…

This book was developed for two reasons: to show teachers, administrators, and parents how to have a successful year-long writing program; and to demonstrate that a valuable literacy tool is not expensive when it utilizes reading-readiness materials already in use. Intended primarily for K-1 teachers, the book contends that students can be…

Describes background, focus, expectations, results, and comments concerning an undergraduate capstone course in the history of applied mathematics. Content area writing as a learning activity is recommended to promote an understanding of the history of the developments in mathematics which led to present day techniques, vocabulary, and…

Second language learners need to be given tools with which they can make language learning a personal experience. In writing, this means that they are given the skills needed to collect, organize, and present information that stimulates acquisition of new vocabulary and production of authentic writing that encourages language-related risk-taking.…