Describes how "Gulliver's Travels" was used with 11- and 12-year-olds to stimulate writing activities. (SRT)

Discusses a literature-inspired model of teaching writing and two scenarios of reading and writing connections in the classroom. Presents several reading and writing lessons drawn from the children's book "The Bat Boy and His Violin" by Gavin Curtis. Discusses Curtis' craft and demonstrates how to use this book to teach writing. Includes brief…

Examines the tasks of authors, of readers, and of teachers in assisting readers to make use of prior information as they read. (FL)

Emphasizing the generic nature of reading behavior and providing a forum to explore this behavior, this book contains the following papers: (1) "Literacy Begins at Home" (Nancy Larrick); (2) "Literacy--Signs for Our Times" (Lil Thompson); (3) "Diversity and Its Discontents" (Arturo Madrid); (4) "May We Always Hear the Bell: The Teaching of…

Intended for teachers, this workbook uses 20 well-known children's books as models to teach expository and narrative writing skills. The workbook teaches students about brainstorming, focus, organization, elaboration, and writing conventions with readily-available quality children's literature, such as "When I Was Young in the…

Interviews elementary children about their fiction writing to gain a glimpse into how writing teachers might improve their teaching. Found the following three features in students' growing knowledge of characters: characters can elicit readers' empathy, can change the attitude of the readers, and can have a mind of their own. (MG)

Based on the premise that teachers are the chief condition in the literate classroom, and that one of the most important things children do is to observe the way adults think and learn, this book presents five essays suggesting methods of inviting children into the adult world of reading and writing. After a foreword by Donald Graves and an…

Focusing on ways in which literature can be used in the integration of reading and writing, this book is meant to help teachers prepare a literature-based classroom that encourages reading and writing. The book contains specific practical ideas and activities for organizing a reading/writing classroom, bibliographies of children's books at the end…

This book presents 15 essays that consider writing development from many different angles, creating a collage that focuses on how to help students develop into competent writers. The first section of the book consists of four chapters on how to support young writers. In the second section, the essays explore how a variety of issues influence…

Suggests that the direct teaching of written language features is no substitute for extensive experience of written language. Gives a brief preliminary account of a recent Centre for Language in Primary Education (CLPE) research project on the influence of children's reading of literature on their writing at Key Stage 2. Highlights the value of…

Argues that, although a little daily practice substantially improves reading proficiency, reading should be viewed as only the beginning of the literature experience. Suggests that interactions with books can continue through many other forms of response. Annotates 22 examples of children's books that invite dramatization, writing, art, music,…

Discusses what five teachers learned when they engaged in a literature discussion group to discuss children's books to develop themselves as writing teachers. Highlights the three layers of talk (emotional responses, exploring the meaning of the book, and exploring the writer's craft) and the role these play in the learning process. (SR)

Shares a curriculum framework based on six aspects of literacy: ownership, reading comprehension, writing process, word identification, language and vocabulary knowledge, and voluntary reading. Notes that this framework is consistent with a whole literacy approach, and includes an assessment system and provisions for accountability. (MG)

Focusing on the need to offer and encourage the experience of reading literature in elementary schools, the essays in this book (1) explicate the range of theory known as reader-response criticism; (2) argue its distinctive relevance to the needs of young, developing readers; and (3) indicate how classroom practices might be changed to accommodate…

Reader-writer conferencing was examined as an alternative or complement to the direct assessment of writing. Criteria guiding development of a framework for analysis of reader-writer conferencing were summarized as: (1) achievability; (2) transfer to other domains of writing; (3) importance of the outcomes; (4) inter-scorer agreement; and (5)…