Investigates writing skills learned in a low socioeconomic status, urban, primary, whole-language classroom. Finds that the children became more fluent writers who used more complex sentences, but the surface level skills used for some purposes did not become automatic. Suggests that some children need more opportunities for editing and…

Suggests that spontaneous utterances of first-grade inner-city children in whole-language classrooms in two urban sites reveal five trends in learner perceptions of beginning reading and writing: (1) metacognitive statements reporting learner self-appraisal and self-management; (2) sound/symbol relations; (3) hypotheses about reading; (4) patterns…