Analyzes writing samples of a child's letters to her aunt over a period of a year and a half to show how writing and reading influence each other. (SR)

Discusses materials in the ERIC system dealing with inservice session on writing as a process, improving teacher writing skills, conducting classroom research, and improving teaching attitudes. (HTH)

Describes the growing autonomy of three young siblings as they wrote in the poetic function over a five-year period. Includes samples of the children's poetry. (HTH)

Examines progressively more competent writing samples from a third grader's journal to illustrate the possibilities for using journals "across the curriculum." (HTH)

Describes how, in a second-/third-grade classroom, and in the context of writing workshop, another kind of community developed--an informal but long-lasting "writing club" with eight core members who worked collaboratively and developed a story topic that became the dominant story topic pattern throughout the remainder of the school year. (SR)

Explores four drafts of a child's story about the disappearance of television, showing how the later draft suggests the writer's interest in questions about the nature of reality, and how the student grew as writer. (HTH)

Discusses one teacher's gradual acceptance of poetry as a useful means for teaching many areas of the language arts. Includes a case study of one student's growth as a poet. (HTH)

Describes a study of a writing exchange between a classroom of teenagers (mostly African American, mostly male) in the United States and another classroom of students in England. Notes that even reluctant writers produced responses in a variety of styles. (SR)

Uses observations of three students' and two teachers' use of metaphors in process writing instruction to shed light on the role of talk in writing development. Finds that metaphors can be complex, interesting, and thought-provoking; and all students developed a shared understanding with teachers despite differences in background. (SR)

Describes how the author participated in her son Carl's writing process at home when she realized his growing resistance to writing in school in the second grade. Examines the in-class composing process and Carl's frustrations. Describes how she became Carl's scribe at home as he gradually discovered that writing could be a symbolic representation…

Presents the opposing viewpoints on grammar study, phonics and whole language instruction, and the role of information in English language arts. (SRT)

Discusses the importance of dialogue in learning, notes that it is lacking in many educational situations, and recommends the use of written dialogue journals as a means of communication between teachers and individual students. Points out the advantages of dialogue journals for improving writing for different social purposes. (SKC)

Presents brief stories of two students that illustrate how children's symbolic interactions and social relationships (how they interact with materials and people) influence their ways of gaining control over the interrelated parts of written language, and how these "casts of mind" may eventually emerge more fully within their stories.…