The purpose of this article is to provide strategies that address three areas (creating a classroom library, incorporating environmental print, establishing writing activities) for beginning teachers for creating literacy-rich environments to support the academic and functional needs of young students with significant developmental disabilities…

The article describes the purposes of free-choice writing in a class of hearing impaired kindergarteners. Implications for writing instruction include the need for stressing writing as communication, planning activities based on student interest, and providing opportunities for students to explore and experiment. (CL)

Traces the development of a project that consisted of first graders developing a book. (DF)

Provides a framework for using journal writing in the primary grades to develop writing skills. Outlines techniques to help focus teacher observations, deepen insights, inform curricular decision making, and help teachers reflect upon the student's role in journal writing. (RS)

Focuses on the use of music as instructional material in early literacy instruction. Uses specific examples of music to highlight concepts of print, a sense of story and sequence, phonemic awareness and phonics, background knowledge and vocabulary, basic spelling patterns, and early writing activities. Concludes with an invitation for…

Describes two writing activities for primary grade students to complete at home with the help of their parents. (MG)

Shares a literature, writing, and art activity which kindergarten students participated in to develop a sense of conservation concerning rain forests. (MG)

Offers guidelines on helping young children develop into independent writers. Explains what to expect at different stages, such as semiphonetic and phonetic stages, drawing as a prewriting activity, and writing and revising once drawing no longer dictates writing. Offers suggestions for providing an environment that supports the writing process.…

Using data from 14 weeks of participant observation, this study examines three kindergartners' behaviors during common beginning literacy activities (i.e., copying and free composition). Results focus on the children's understanding of how written symbols and orally read messages are related and have implications for the use of teaching…

Examines the reasons why a child's writing gets bogged down and discusses ways in which the child can be gently encouraged to take writing risks. Also included are descriptions of writing exercises designed to stretch student creativity. (GLR)

Aims for students to explore spontaneous ways of finding material for their poems by suppressing control over their subject matter and letting their unconscious minds do the work. Uses a poem of William Carlos Williams, "Red Wheelbarrow," both with K-2 students and adults in a poetry workshop. Illustrates class procedures and activities…

Analyzes the creative writing of 94 second-grade children in a suburban elementary school, comparing boys' and girls' creative writings when the composition was elicited from realistic fiction, fantasy, and fantasy in conjunction with stuffed animals and wind-up toys. Also examines the combined creativity of boys' and girls' compositions and the…

Recounts observations of a second grader's writing processes and concludes that students' enjoyment of writing should be cultivated. (DF)

Describes an activity for primary school students, combining writing with computer-art quilt-making. Provides a bibliography of quilt books. (MM)

Recounts how observation of children who were just beginning to write convinced a teacher that very young children can write, and thus changed the way she taught. (JL)