The purpose of this study was to explore the use of Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) in preservice teacher education as a tool for learning about differentiation within writing instruction. Using online dialogue journals, preservice teachers communicated with elementary students about a shared text and met in ongoing PLC groups to examine…

Incorporating a journal writing routine into the classroom is critical to developing autonomous writers. During the course of a full year, a first-grade classroom embarked on a quest to discover the importance of creating successful writers. This study confirms the significance of implementing and establishing authentic and meaningful journal…

Despite the enactment of No Child Left Behind (2002), many urban school districts continue to battle the achievement gap and struggle with low literacy rates. Authentic writing instruction, a main component of literacy, is being cut in those districts that struggle most to accommodate other demands made by the nation and state. The primary purpose…

This action research project involved the implementation of a program designed to improve student motivation to write through the use of children's literature. The targeted populations were students in one kindergarten class and one third grade ELL [English Language Learners] class in two elementary schools. Both schools were located in a…

Describes the use of student-developed rubrics, conferencing, and reflective journaling to improve writing skills in a third-grade classroom. A rubric--a written tool used to authentically assess a piece of work--lists criteria for the work and includes a system for evaluating each criteria. Rubrics enabled the students to evaluate their own work…

Examined the effect of differential feedback (corrections, commentaries), and a combination of the two) on the journal writing accuracy of minority- and majority-language students being educated in the same classrooms. Journal writing samples were collected from 112 fifth grade students over 4 months. Outcomes of the study are discussed in light…

We, the two authors of this article, have used dialogue journals for many years: Pearly with primary school students and George with secondary, tertiary, and adult students. Below, we share our ideas and those of others about this valuable learning tool. In the examples from our students' journals, names have been replaced with letters. [This…

Preservice teachers often enter English language arts teacher preparation courses with untapped fears of writing and teaching writing due to null or bad experiences as K-12 students. In this article, I follow two preservice elementary teachers through a semester long methods course and reveal how they developed positive, clear images of themselves…

Strategies to address the reading and writing needs of reluctant and hesitant students with limited English proficiency (LEP) are provided in this guide for teachers. It is drawn from experiences with six elementary school teachers and an elementary school principal in San Antonio in the Southwest Independent School District/University of Texas…

A study examined the feedback associated with "author's chair" to determine the opportunities provided for students to learn about literacy. Subjects, six boys and three girls between the ages of 8 and 10 in a self-contained classroom for students identified as learning disabled, were exposed to a process-oriented approach to writing instruction…

A new teacher confronted the reading and writing needs of 22 fifth-graders in a small South Texas community that is home to Mexican American migrant laborers. The children, many of them Spanish language-dominant, were performing significantly below grade-level norms; many did not read or write at all. In 1 year, these students were reading and…