Students learn to read and write best when their teachers balance literacy instruction. But how do you strike the "right" balance of skills and knowledge, reading and writing, small and whole group instruction, and direct and dialogic instruction, so that all students can learn to their maximum potential? The answer lies in the…

In order to prepare effective writing teachers, teacher educators need an understanding of how preservice preparation programs, inservice professional development, and the policies and practices of K-12 schools work together to influence teachers' writing instruction. This qualitative case study uses complexity theory (Davis & Sumara, 2006) to…

Explains how students can learn to write reports based on encyclopedia information without resorting to copying or becoming bored. (FL)

Several teachers contribute activities, games, and teaching ideas for writing instruction in the elementary grades. (SJL)

This guide contains activities for use in helping elementary school pupils increase the quality and quantity of their written expression. The first section of the book contains prewriting, writing, and postwriting activities designed to develop specific skills. The remaining eight sections offer prewriting, writing, and postwriting activities for…

Suggests activities for teaching students to put story events in the proper sequence when they read and write. (FL)

The article presents six remedial handwriting activities which address a variety of deficits commonly affecting the handwriting of learning disabled (LD) students. Each activity is presented with a rationale, step-by-step instructions, exemplary worksheets as necessary, and suggestions for teaching. In the "Coin Challenge" students learn correct…

Stressing the importance of instructional objectives, this discussion explores the relationship of handwriting to child characteristics and societal expectations. The nature of writing is described, and questions are specified for teachers to consider before determining educational objectives pertaining to handwriting. Guidelines for initial…

Argues that teachers of young children need to recognize and take advantage of suitable opportunities to model their writing skills. Offers examples of possible activities. (FL)

Demonstrates how writing can grow from the ongoing curriculum by discussing types of writing included in a unit on pets, suggests areas of the curriculum and materials that are good springboards to writing, and describes instructional materials that focus on writing. (ET)

This paper describes how meaning potentials were constructed in the literacy event known as Morning Message, an activity in which a 4th grade teacher and students jointly constructed a written text around the experiences of one student. Emphasis is on how meaning was orchestrated and scaffolded by the teacher's conversational moves and on how…

Reviews materials in the ERIC system that level criticisms at creative writing in the schools and that present suggestions for activities that promote good writing that is also creative. (HTH)

Illustrates, through a description and examples, the collaboration between a university class and an elementary class. Describes pen pals and collaborative book writing as two approaches that provide student writers with the opportunity to receive rehearsal of strategies such as invented spelling, writing as a process, and integrating the language…

The four mini-centers described here give a sampling of themes and activities for small classroom learning centers on writing. Short descriptions are also included of 20 other possible themes to interest students in writing activities. (SJL)

Argues that children want to write and enjoy writing and that teachers need to provide them with suitable opportunities for doing so. Discusses different kinds of writing that allow children's voices to come through. (FL)