Trickster tales, with their teachings on how to behave in the world, are a powerful means for transmitting social knowledge and cultural mores to children. In this study we compared two approaches to teaching fourth-grade students to write trickster tales. Although both instructional methods incorporated aspects of the writing process approach,…

A study analyzed and described the writing development of 24 children in a multiethnic inner city classroom in Canada to learn whether there were measurable differences among native speakers, bilinguals, and English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) beginners. Writing samples were analyzed for describing, interpreting, generalizing, and speculating…

The relationships between the understandings children develop while learning the written form of their own names and those developed while learning other words were examined in a study. Twelve children, aged three, four, and five, were selected. The study involved three tasks which examined the subjects' expertise with letters, numbers, and the…

Relations between classroom contexts and young children's self-regulated learning were examined through the use of writing and portfolio activities. Findings support sociocognitive models of learning regarding how classroom contexts affect students' beliefs, values, expectations, and actions. (Author/GCP)

Defends the study of literature in the elementary and secondary grades for its ability to help students think both creatively and critically. Provides objectives for teaching literature such as development of perception, expression, cognitive style, aesthetic awareness, moral values, and writing ability. (SRT)