Donald Graves's early professional books inspired Koshewa to look more deeply into student writing during the 1980s, and to value all phases of the writing process. Graves's perspective on uncovering and celebrating voice elevated Koshewa's writing instruction to a new plane. In this article, he writes about the impact that Donald Graves's work…

For four years, Pat Paugh, a university teacher educator, and Mary Moran, a teacher researcher, collaborated on action research by systematically studying literacy development connected to the latter's third-grade community gardening and urban farming curriculum. Their goal was to support an existing classroom culture that valued…

Three elementary teachers share how they engaged in active listening with the families of children in their classrooms by using home-school journals. Their use spans pre-Kindergarten to fifth grade, and the techniques and responses by each teacher vary based on need and intended purpose. The authors share explanations of process, findings, and…

The Family Backpack Project provided 249 low-income, prekindergarten children and their families with opportunities to read and listen to audio recordings of 3 sets of books in their homes. Families received English or dual-language texts (English plus Spanish, Arabic, Kurdish, or Somali) matched to their home languages. Children and their…

This paper describes diverse language learners' use of dialogue journaling in an elementary school setting. The author, a teacher researcher, conducted a qualitative research study with eight participants, ranging from fourth to sixth grade; all were learners adding English to their language repertoire. Through an in-depth analysis of student…

Describes how a teacher's journey of documenting everyday literacy events on the streets in her community changes her understanding of what it means to bring the outside world and local literacies into her classroom. Concludes that educators must place value on who students are and where they come from. Suggests that educators and students must…

Offers a peek inside the journals kept by a well-known language-arts educator, which he uses as a repository for his thoughts, drawings, articles of interest, notes from conversations with others on his own work, the work of others, and education in general. Shows how the journal is an "audit trail" of its owner's learning. (SR)

Presents an interview with author Jack Gantos, whose career spans almost 25 years. Notes how he spoke passionately about his craft and about supporting emerging writers. Discusses how avid journaling is one technique that he uses that could benefit anyone. (SG)

Relates what the author learned about learning through journal writing, namely: strategies to make order from confusion; ways to connect one's learning to the rest of one's life; ways to become aware not only of what we learn, but of how we learn, both alone and together. (SR)

Recounts an extended classroom conversation between a fifth grade teacher and her students concerning multiculturalism. Reflects on issues raised in the conversation. Presents samples of students' writing in response to the conversation. Presents excerpts from parents' journals. (RS)

Discusses 13 professional books (on multiple intelligences, changing literacies, censorship in children's literature, grading student writing, learning journals, and more) and one book of fiction that are potentially useful to educators, and that, in one way or another, take up the theme of "being explicit about explicit instruction."…

Brings science and art into the language arts classroom as a means of exploring cross-curricular connections without losing sight of the priority of writing. Notes that keeping a pseudo science journal in language arts as well as painting and drawing helped students learn more and see more about themselves as learners, both in science and in…

Presents a series of e-mail conversations between the two authors as they debate some of the "sacred cows" of writing instruction in elementary language arts: (1) Do teachers need to be writers?; (2) Do students need to keep journals?; (3) Is writing a political act?; and (4) Do students need to publish their work? (SR)

Shares an account of one student's writing journal and how he developed as a writer. (MG)

Shares how the author's process of self-study led to the development of a planning framework that protected her from mandated packaged teaching programs. Suggests tips for starting and sustaining teaching journals. Describes the steps she took to approach the structured teaching plan of her new school that differed greatly from her holistic…