Supporting upper elementary students' higher level (i.e., analytic) thinking about texts in writing is a challenge for many teachers, in large part because what it means to analyze text is not well defined and because this skill is a relatively new expectation in elementary grades. In this article, the authors clarify the goal of three common…

Throughout the decades, writing has been recognized as a process that helps learners to think more deeply about ideas and information they encounter through reading, listening, viewing, and physically experiencing the world around them. "Discovery writing," the type of writing over which students have some control of the format, topic, purpose,…

Students draw a series of pictures that tell a simple story that includes character action, problem and solution. They "read" their story to others, transcribe it into writing, and create an accordion book with the drawings and writing. The activity supports the transition from oral to written storytelling. During the four 30- to 40-minute…

This book offers an entire year of journaling ideas--some serious, some "silly," but all tied to the calendar year. In fact, the book's sections are the months of the year. Each idea in the book comes with a fact-filled introduction and aims to prove that writing does not have to be boring or dull. As a special feature, many entries in…

Designed to help teachers empower students to become thinkers, writers, and especially authors, this book helps teachers develop a writer's mindset in grades 2-6 students. It supports and guides teachers from the week before school through the spring Young Author's Conference that recognizes writing achievement. Chapters in the book are: (1) Kids…

Middle school teacher describes a framework that gives inexperienced, anxious writers the confidence to write. The process, called doing prompts, stems from analyzing prompts or writing assignments that outline the topic for a piece of writing. The process involves analyzing the prompt being called for, completing a graphic organizer, composing…