Describes a "directed writing activity" that teachers can use in developing writing sessions that consistently produce good results. Outlines six steps in the writing activity: prewriting, framing the writing assignment, writing the assignment, revising the draft, editing, and writing the final draft. (AEA)

Proposes that an awareness of writing as a process is the necessary basis for building effective writing programs, provides examples of activities that promote more creative writing samples, and expresses the need for emphasis on different purposes and audiences for writing assignments to broaden young writers' styles. (HTH)

Describes a way to teach children the research paper through personal discovery without constraints that usually compel them to copy from reference books. The process demonstrates that organizational schemes for children are intuitive, and that teachers can show children how to use peer response groups during their writing to aid in…

Recounts a teacher's involvement with students in the spontaneous process of learning to write. Presents the benefits of such an approach as preferable to conventional structured methods of writing instruction. (HTH)

Describes a writing workshop in which teachers work with clay and write about their products. (HTH)

Examines a number of language activities in educational software, noting that most focus on surface structure and conventions, thus closing off students' options rather than expanding them. Discusses how, by improvising with word processors, teachers can tailor activities to help students explore and reflect on their reading and writing…

Discusses (1) the practice of giving examinations and how this contradicts current theory about the writing process, (2) how students spontaneously became involved in reading and writing activities, and (3) the implications of not teaching traditional grammar. (SRT)

Discusses how one teacher used writing--her own writing as well as that of her graduate students--to learn, about student interests, their writing attitudes, and what a writer really is. Describes the use of dialogue journals, use of excerpted entries for class handouts, and the use of writing for more constructive student assessment. (HTH)

Laments the discrepancy between the process approach to reading and writing instruction advocated in research and the skills approach manifested in homework assignments. Decries the unsatisfactory role this kind of homework forces parents to assume. (HTH)