The purpose of this study was to determine what students know about the process of writing and the characteristics of stories, persuasive arguments, and informational reports. Participants were 50 grade 5 students. Students responded to questions about writing process and the three different types of writing, and showed a nuanced but relatively…

Replicated 1982 study of student writing and nature of writing instruction in one Kentucky school district. Found that teachers in 1995 spent twice as much time teaching writing as in 1982 and that students spent more time on higher-level writing activities involving composition of extended text and less time on lower-level activities such as…

Traces the history of reform in writing instruction and places it in the context of current educational reform initiatives. Examines the dilemmas teachers and teacher educators face as they balance their concern for maintaining and fostering what is known about the teaching and learning of writing with the growing focus on achievement on…

Examined ways three fifth-grade teachers facilitated student notebook writing as part of an inquiry of electric circuits. Found that teachers promoted notebook writing through explicit instructions and prompts. Teachers provided frequent opportunities for writing, and checked that students had documented procedural aspects of investigations.…

Introduces the special issue on children's writing which contains seven articles that offer analytic portraits of the teaching and learning of writing from prekindergarten through seventh grade. Highlights the collective themes of a social perspective on writing, of children's diverse resources, and of the links between those resources and…

Describes collaborative study done by a prekindergarten teacher, staff developer, and college teacher educator utilizing a highly integrated curriculum whose core was multiple symbol systems. Notes focus on literacy as well as beginnings of writing and reading. Concludes that within the context of high-stakes schooling, the teacher managed to…

Draws on data collected in an ethnographic project in an urban first grade to examine how media use informs child composing. Focuses on the influence of visual media involving animation. Concludes with a consideration of the teaching challenges posed, and opportunities offered, by the children's media use. (Author)

Addresses issues related to biliteracy development in children. Presents two case studies that highlight how children use the social processes and cultural resources at hand to develop their literate competencies in Spanish and English. Discusses special challenges in relation to the formation of biliteracy in classrooms. (Author)

Identified preferred writing topics for 600 students in grades, 4, 6, and 8 and gender markers used to identify authors of 9 stories written by other students. Found that students situated girls' writing within primary territory; viewed girls as more competent, conscientious writers than boys; and associated the presence of violence with male…

Explores the implicit boundaries on topic choice established by early proponents of writing process pedagogy and traces these boundaries to a widespread cultural concern about the disappearance of a pretechnological form of childhood. Urges a dialogic view of writing that acknowledges the positive contribution children's media affiliations can…

Draws on a study of socioeconomically disadvantaged children's acquisition of school literacies to investigate how children's writing and drawing might be key elements in developing critical literacies in elementary school settings. Focuses on how such classroom writing can be a mediator of emotions, intellectual and academic learning, social…

Draws on classroom observations, interviews, and writing portfolios to contend that competing demands in modern classrooms can lead to environments that sabotage the teaching of argumentative and persuasive writing. Concludes that the epistemology fostered by classroom talk and other activities was inimical to the complex rhetoric the teacher was…