In this article, Boldt considers decisions teachers must make about the value of children's writing as a form of play in primary classrooms. She offers a brief history of the framing of this question at 1966 Dartmouth Conference on English, focusing particularly on the perspective of Jimmy Britton. She highlights the relationship between Britton's…

Clarifies 21 misconceptions about the nature of writing, how writing is learned, the act of writing, and who can teach writing. (HTH)

Discusses how a teacher was challenged to outgrow previously held beliefs about children and broaden her verbocentric curricular assumptions and experiences by a student for whom art stabilized and gave shape to his thoughts. Notes that the student helped bring real meaning to the idea that learning is "multimodal" in nature. (RS)

Discusses the experiences of students as they try to turn pictures in their head into poetry. Describes how the poetry of popular music can provide stimulus for student poetry. (HTH)

Examines ERIC materials on the nature of and supporting the use of invented spelling in elementary school writing. (HTH)

Presents case studies of two first-grade children, examining their writing as a linguistic and social process that involves the child in an exploration of both oral and written language within the social context of the classroom. (HTH)

Discusses the inadequacies of standard conceptions of the writing process by relating the experiences of one child in a writing class. Proposes alternative ways to expand the concept of the writing process by incorporating related activities in reading, art, and drama. (MS)