Examines how children's written work is enhanced through "teachable" lessons, where the teacher draws attention explicitly to aspects of literary texts and where children explore and evaluate literature through group reading and discussion. Explores the relationship between group evaluations of texts and children's writing development with…

Examines the creation of process drama and writing experiences in a second/third-grade classroom. Describes how the classroom teacher used process drama (involving students in imaginary, unscripted, and spontaneous scenes) as a context for learning. Notes how process drama provided a context for content area instruction along with writing…

Bringing together information elementary school teachers need to make balanced literacy instruction a reality, this book presents more than 90 short articles designed to be read in a brief period of time and suitable for use in after-school workshops. It presents ideas and instructional approaches teachers have found most valuable and effective in…

Through accessible case studies, this book offers insights into the numerous ways in which "interactive writing" (participation of two or more friendly correspondents who exchange texts across an extended period of time) can facilitate children's writing skills. The book notes that interactive writing provides children with enjoyable…

Extending an earlier Donald Graves study by including students over seven years of age, this study identified relationships among the nature of writing tasks assigned by teachers and the written responses of elementary school students to those tasks. One class each at the third, fifth, and seventh grade levels provided eighteen sets of writing…

Looks at ways to improve students' writing through use of classroom writing programs that emphasize revisions or rewriting. Identifies types of revisions to be made and suggests ways to help students focus on their purpose, including self-selection of topics, publishing and conferencing. (PCB)

Fifteen learning-disabled students, aged 8-12 years, showed marked improvement in their story writing when they used a word processor as compared to handwritten stories. Children with severe spelling problems made fewer errors in their word-processed stories. Reluctant writers tended to write longer word-processed stories compared to handwritten…

Presents an overview of research on classroom drama which shows that its use produces positive effects on children's reading, writing, and oral language. Suggests additional questions requiring exploration, and urges researchers to emphasize qualitative rather than quantitative analyses. (ARH)

Describes an elementary school creative writing program involving lay-readers, which leads to increased creativity, more enthusiasm for writing, and better writing skills. (DCS)

Describes a model inservice program developed and implemented in the Bangor Township (Michigan) elementary schools, which was structured on the process approach to writing instruction. (FL)

Presents a seven-step activity for researching and presenting information in the form of nonfiction big books, allowing children to read for information and write to inform. (MG)

Describes how art became a central part of a South Texas teacher's language arts curriculum and how such an approach improved children's reading and writing test scores despite (actually because of) the fact that she refused to drill children for the test. (RS)

Four case studies evaluated the use of self-recorded word counts of freewriting in grade one, two, three, and four classes, under both loose and restricted time limits. In each case, the number of words written in a session increased over time and this increase accompanied improvements in the expressiveness of the freewriting, with little evidence…

Studies revising strategies by examining the correction-sequencing procedures implemented by 48 elementary children and 48 adults. Finds three distinct groups of subjects: those who improved the text by using one of the model strategies, those who improved the text without using a model strategy, and those who failed to improve the text. (MG)

Explores three elements of writing programs that keep writing alive: evaluation, reading, and experimentation. Includes teachers from various research projects who experiment in their writing, share it with their students, and enjoy what they do. (RS)