Donald Graves's early professional books inspired Koshewa to look more deeply into student writing during the 1980s, and to value all phases of the writing process. Graves's perspective on uncovering and celebrating voice elevated Koshewa's writing instruction to a new plane. In this article, he writes about the impact that Donald Graves's work…

A fifth grade student, who is a successful writer, describes the process she goes through in writing a paper. (DD)

Discusses how a professional writer and teacher of writing helps children write better by incorporating specific images taken from their "screens"--the places where they see things in their heads. Presents numerous examples of students' poems. Notes the "screens" can also be used in writing stories or essays. (RS)

States the importance of content in the process writing classroom. Demonstrates with "cultural texts" (texts about the daily realities of the students on topics of domesticity and family, violence, evolving sexuality, and future aspirations) that not only how children write, but also what they write about, is of critical importance in helping them…

Examines children's story-writing processes as they develop over a two-year period, from kindergarten through second grade. Observes that children reflect multiple worlds in their writing, including their ongoing social world, the imaginary world of their story, and the wider, experienced world of people, places, and events. (MM)

Shares an account of one student's writing journal and how he developed as a writer. (MG)

Discusses how students of both sexes in a third-grade class used popular culture to scaffold their stories--they (1) aimed at audience reaction, often using argument and shock; (2) incorporated their favorite writers and curricular topics into their pieces; and (3) by year's end, merged the talents of both genders into a higher form of literacy.…

Presents a case study of poetry writing in a fifth grade classroom. Shows not only how writing and reading come together but also how children come together with each other and with published poets. (RS)

Discusses getting children to focus as much on the process by which they do their research as on the content of the research itself. Describes a project with fifth grade students in which children orchestrate their own reading, writing, and talking as they investigate their topic. (SR)

Presents brief stories of two students that illustrate how children's symbolic interactions and social relationships (how they interact with materials and people) influence their ways of gaining control over the interrelated parts of written language, and how these "casts of mind" may eventually emerge more fully within their stories.…