Documents the progressive spelling strategies and improvement of one third-grade student over the course of eight drafts. (HTH)

Examines the prose versions of Shakespeare plays written for children by Charles and Mary Lamb, Bernard Miles, and Leon Garfield. Suggests that the content ranges far from Shakespeare's originals and promotes values that should be questioned critically. (TB)

A study analyzed children's compositions from grades 1-4 in Slovenian schools. Children described real places within the framework of an experientially provable world, which is empirically available to them within the limits of their abilities and possibilities. Irreal places were described inventively without the support of experience, although…

A study investigated whether or not Black characters were portrayed in a negatively stereotyped manner in Caldecott and Newbery Award and Honor books from 1963 to 1983. The 21 books studied portrayed Black characters in significant roles. Each of the selected books was examined for negative racial stereotyping using a checklist adapted from an…

A study determined how economically deprived people were portrayed in selected works of children's literature. The content of 30 children's books of realistic fiction written by authors and illustrators of Newbery and Caldecott Award Winners and Honor Books was analyzed. Results indicated that: (1) nearly all economically deprived characters were…

A pilot study explored what children between the ages of 8 and 11 focus on when they write about writing: how children define writing, what features they believe constitute the act and product of writing, and what kinds of writing children consider important and why. During a half-hour period, 36 students in grades 3 through 5 were asked to write…

A study examined three recent language arts textbook programs for grades one through six to determine the frequency of writing activities, the nature of the writing tasks, and the frequency of process-approach activities such as selecting topics, prewriting, sharing, revising, and publishing. The programs analyzed were Scott, Foresman's "Language:…

A study examined composition textbooks to determine any trends in composition instruction from 1900 to 1959. The study period was divided into three periods--1900 to 1917, 1918 to 1935, and 1936 to to 1959--and three textbooks from each period were content analyzed. A categorical framework was formulated, permitting allocation of tasks found…