Presents a case study of one six-year-old that suggests that e-mail messages foster different skills and conventions than does print-based letter writing. Hopes to illuminate the writing practices children might develop as they engage in e-mail communication. (SG)

Family Message journals, notebooks in which first-graders write a message to their families and receive a family reply each day, provide a fertile context for instruction and practice in writing for real-world functions and authentic audiences. Observation of classroom instruction, qualitative analysis of case-study children's and families'…

Examines first graders' demonstrations of audience awareness in the context of Family Message Journal writing (in which children write a message to their families and receive written replies). Finds that the first graders demonstrated a sense of audience when writing for family readers, to get something they want, when prompted by their teacher to…