Letter poems make poetry accessible, meaningful, and fun. Letter poems are also an apt medium for exploring a defining characteristic of poetry--line breaks. Students explore letter poems and experiment with writing letters as poems, using the placement of line breaks to enhance rhythm, sound, meaning, and appearance. During the two 40-minute…

Offers a step-by-step guide to teaching elementary school children conventions such as punctuation, spelling, and grammar and includes a sample minilesson and 10 tips for teachers. An interview with author Donald Graves answers questions about teaching writing. (SM)

Reports classroom observations and dialogues with children that show children's understandings and use of punctuation; reports data showing that children in a class in which punctuation was taught in the context of writing learned more about punctuation than children in a class in which it was taught in isolation. (ET)

The approach to computer-based instruction for third and fourth grade elementary students which is sketched teaches component placement, capitalization, and punctuation skills of addressing envelopes within the context of a simulated envelope. Part of a larger design for a complete program of composition instruction, this program comprises a set…

The effects of sentence combining instruction on student writing skills (punctuation, capitalization, grammar, and syntactic maturity) and reading achievement were studied in eight-, nine-, ten-, and eleven-year-old children. The experimental group, which received instruction in sentence combining, consisted of 20 students from each age group.…

An interest in conditions of practice and feedback led to a study which examined the effect on writing by elementary school students of (1) two types of practice, both similar to "free focused writing"; (2) practice at a frequency greater than once a week; and (3) a procedure by which students measured their own performance and provided themselves…

This book presents 15 essays that consider writing development from many different angles, creating a collage that focuses on how to help students develop into competent writers. The first section of the book consists of four chapters on how to support young writers. In the second section, the essays explore how a variety of issues influence…

In this K-8 writing skills curriculum, developed in Skokie (Illinois), the objectives are presented in a "mastery" format so that student achievement can be assessed. The document begins with a statement of philosophy, and guidelines for teachers to use in implementing the program, and then describes the curriculum format, which focuses on the…

Elementary school teachers acknowledge the need for better writing instruction, but seldom have time for it within their already crowded curricula. Writing instruction suffers from placing skills development before writing activities, from emphasis on reading, and because many teachers are not well prepared to teach writing. A low priority is…

Discusses nine orthodoxies, including the idea that spelling, grammar, and punctuation are unimportant, that decrease teacher effectiveness. (DF)

A study of the effects of a typing tutor plus a computer-based word processor versus paper and pencil on the writing of six elementary students with behavioral disorders found small improvements in capitalization, spelling, punctuation, and complete sentences attributable to either method, though story length increased for three of six students…

More than 100 individual and group activities, learning center ideas, and bulletin board suggestions are offered in this handbook for developing the writing skills of second, third, and fourth grade students. An analysis chart is provided as a diagnostic tool for determining the writing strengths and weaknesses of students. The activities are…

Sixteen children in five different classrooms in the same, small, rural-suburban school in New Hampshire were observed for 2 years to document what primary children did when they wrote. Eight of the children were observed from age 6 through 7, and eight from 8 through 9. Three researchers were on-site in classrooms 4 days out of 5 for the 2-year…

Continuing its emphasis on a student- and response-centered approach to literature-based teaching in today's culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms, this third edition discusses these principles not only through explanation, but through examples of real teachers in real classrooms involved in the actual implementation of these ideas. The…

Taking a consistent student- and response-centered approach to literature-based teaching in culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms, this book is designed for use as a main text in undergraduate and graduate language arts methods courses. The book is firmly grounded in current social constructivist learning theory combined with a…