Purpose: This study examined the efficacy of a professional development program for early childhood educators that facilitated emergent literacy skills in preschoolers. The program, led by a speech-language pathologist, focused on teaching alphabet knowledge, print concepts, sound awareness, and decontextualized oral language within naturally…

Stresses the importance of using imagery when having beginning writers write poetry. Discusses additional techniques of stressing the unusual, continuation words, the five senses, and repetition of a word or phrase. (MG)

Discusses beginning writing activities that teachers can use with young children. Notes that preschoolers use writing systems that include drawings, scribblings, letterlike forms, words, and invented spelling. Suggests that teachers can use functional writing projects, such as greeting cards, lists, journals, address books, and pen pals, to…

Based on the authors' classroom work and observations since the 1930s, this book is intended to help teach children to write correctly and, at the same time, help them learn to enjoy writing so much that they will want to continue writing throughout their lives. The book offers classroom teachers, school library media specialists, curriculum…

The study examined 41 students (24 male, 17 female) in a beginning writing course for adults. Data were collected by (1) taping four workshop sessions in which all students participated in small groups, (2) interviewing all the students, and (3) observing four students writing in the classroom. The adult writers composed in two models: the…

Challenges the view that children should learn to write narratives first and shows how teachers can exploit everyday classroom topics to help children develop control of the kinds of factual writing normally used by adults. (MM)

Outlines an integrated study approach to informational writing for second grade children. Using dinosaurs as the topic, discusses how students solved the problem of selecting, organizing, and structuring their information by focusing on smaller pieces of information or by planning a contents page for their book. (MM)

Investigates teacher-student conferences' influence on first graders' revision activity and knowledge about revision. Finds the most positive effects occurred for students who began with the least amount of knowledge about revision, who previously were doing the least amount of revision, and who were writing pieces judged among the lowest in…

Presents a grade one and two activity that teaches students the strategy of reading like a writer. Demonstrates the method using Dayal Kaur Khalsa's "I Want A Dog." (MM)

Designed to expand children's artistic and reading/writing abilities while developing their ability to draw, tell, and write stories, this paper describes a "story-picture" program for first grade Blackfoot Indian children. General cognitive, perceptual and psychomotor, and affective skills are listed as the course's intended learning…

Reviews Monsters and Make-Believe Plus, a computer program which supports learners in their quest to become skilled language users. Finds it to be one of the most powerful software programs available to implement a whole language program. (MG)

Examines early stages in children's handwriting, emphasizing the importance of teaching correct letter formation. Recommends (1) individual initial assessment and formative assessment throughout the teaching program; (2) teaching based on individual children's errors; and (3) careful observation of individual children in the process of writing.…

Having implications for teachers and students at all stages of primary school, this project report delineates an alternative and more effective approach to the teaching of beginning writing. The report points out that the project, while producing a body of classroom-tested material, focused on awareness about written language and how children…

Written by teachers of elementary school students, the 30 articles in this collection are designed to provide insights into the way children learn to write and to encourage teachers to examine their own theories and perceptions of writing and writing instruction. The articles are grouped in six sections, covering beginning writing, collaborative…