In Denmark, the educational context for children's first encounter with formal writing instruction is compulsory school, in Danish termed "grundskolen" ("foundational school"), which is mandatory and comprises the first ten years of schooling (students aged 6-15). Hereafter, students shift to vocational or general upper…

The Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC) was created to support teachers in implementing college and career readiness standards in order to teach literacy skills throughout the content areas. Teachers work collaboratively with coaches to further develop their expertise and design standards-driven, literacy-rich writing assignments within their…

For the past few years the author has been studying the writing lives of teachers, first analyzing the contributions of teachers to National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) journals for the ten-year period between 1998 and 2008 and then surveying and interviewing teacher-authors whose works appeared during that period to learn more about…

In this column, Kenji Hakuta and Mario Santos described the challenges and opportunities the Common Core State Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards present for language development in the context of English language arts/literacy, mathematics, and science. They heightened educators' awareness of the critical role language plays…

The authors suggest using scripting as a strategy to mentor and enhance author's voice in writing. Through gradual release, students use authentic literature as a model for writing with voice. The authors also propose possible extensions for independent practice, integration across content areas, and tips for evaluation.

In a quasi-experimental study (N = 60), grade 7/8 teachers students were taught to write arguments in content-area subjects. After instruction, students drew on document portfolios to write on a new topic: "Do the continents drift?" In a MANCOVA, students who participated in argument instruction scored significantly higher than a control…

In his latest book, Daniel Meier highlights the critical importance of integrating content and mechanics for successful and engaged writing at the K-4 level. Featuring the teaching philosophies and strategies of seven exemplary teachers, and a discussion of relevant research and theory, Meier provides a fresh, practical, and much-needed…

This study focuses on an examination of the learning-to-learn strategies of seventh-grade students as they highlight, take notes, plan, organize, and write expository texts. Participants consist of 125 students, 41 with disabilities and 84 without disabilities. The results reveal that the students with disabilities have more difficulties in using…

The digital age has transformed how work is done in science, health care, the law, journalism, international relations, education, environmental conservation, agriculture, and engineering. To prepare students to thrive in today's society, teachers need to know more about how technologies are used in disciplines and workplaces, and--most…

An innovative, practical guide for middle and high school teachers, this book is packed with specific ways that technology can help serve the goals of effective writing instruction. It provides ready-to-implement strategies for teaching students to compose and edit written work electronically; conduct Internet inquiry; create blogs, websites, and…

What are the most effective methods for teaching writing across grade levels and student populations? What kind of training do teachers need to put research-validated methods into practice? This unique volume combines the latest writing research with clear-cut recommendations for designing high-quality professional development efforts. Prominent…

This book focuses on how to provide effective instruction to K-12 students who find writing challenging, including English language learners and those with learning disabilities or language impairments. Prominent experts illuminate the nature of writing difficulties and offer practical suggestions for building students' skills at the word,…

Whereas there has been strong advocacy of the value of writing for learning in science, the role of student planning in this approach and the relationships between planning, writing, and learning have been underresearched. Our mixed method study aimed to address this issue by seeking to identify quantitative differences in learning outcomes…

Even the youngest readers and writers in today's classrooms can benefit enormously from engagement with a wide range of traditional and nontraditional texts. This teacher-friendly handbook is packed with creative strategies for introducing K-3 students to fiction, poetry, and plays; informational texts; graphic novels; digital storytelling;…

Explanation as a genre may support children's reasoning and understanding particularly effectively. In this study, 20 fourth graders were given the task of explaining the effects of a pollutant on an ecosystem to third graders. Before writing, they completed a commercially developed science unit, instruction in reading and writing an explanation,…