This paper draws from research conducted as part of an Australian Research Council funded Linkage Project "Teaching effective 3D authoring in the middle years: multimedia grammatical design and multimedia authoring pedagogy", which is a collaboration between the University of New England, the University of Tasmania and the Australian…

Using the concept of the "constructed child" to reflect on "the child writer," this paper addresses the ways in which educators make sense of what the child does when he or she writes in school. The paper draws upon experiences with 5- to 10-year-old children in a recent study of child writers, especially 8-year-old Ayesha. It…

The three children who are the focus of this paper emerged from analysis of KS2 (Key Stage 2, ages 7 to 11 years) writing during the Kirklees Writing Project. This involved a group of six KS2 teachers bringing samples of students' work to evaluation meetings in which key factors of a particular genre were identified and differences in children's…

Presents journal entries written by one child in kindergarten through fourth grade that demonstrates her changing understanding about spelling. Suggests what type of instruction might nudge her along in learning. Concludes that teachers must analyze individuals to best meet their needs and that a daily journal offers a perfect opportunity to…

The elementary school teacher faces unique challenges with struggling writers, whose writing differs from that of more skilled students in both process and product. This book demonstrates how process writing and strategy instruction can be integrated to help young writers untangle the complicated writing process. The book introduces its readers to…

Contends that children assimilate enormous amounts of information from society. Reveals the presence, in one child's fictional piece of writing, of complex layers of gender (including gender stereotypes), societal tensions, and economic social forces which one might expect to be beyond the grasp of a seven-year-old. (SR)

Presents the story of one urban, African American, third-grade girl's writing. Discusses the roles that teachers, peers, and cultural contexts play in children's growth into--and against--the life and literacy that surrounds them. (SR)

Examines current reforms in writing assessment, including the California Learning Assessment System writing portfolio. Compares language writing to "the clay that makes the pot." Concludes that writing revolves around criticism, but if assessment stays on the surface, then criticism may not be helpful in pushing the generative aspect of…

Centers on the power of words (words from literature) that have woven themselves into the lives of the author's two daughters. Examines the children's response to literature as they became writers of prose and poetry in elementary school, showing how, when, where, and why the children use literary language to enhance and express their own verbal…

Children's writings seem to elicit a somewhat narrow range of adult responses. More often than not, the adult tendency is to read children's fictional writings as autobiographical. The adult critic can, that is, think of the child author as a collection of biographical facts, a series of life experiences with an end point marked by the production…