The purpose of this chapter is to explore the intersection of three facets of the Community Writing Project's (CWP) small writing workshops that are at the core of its democratic practice: (1) legitimating the experiences and stories of ordinary people as expressions of their cultural work in the world; (2) fostering a mutual relationship of the…

Two studies of the Self-Directive Dramatization Project are reported. In the first the relationship of dramatization, self-concept, and reading achievement in middle class children in grades 2 through 7 was examined, and in the second mostly black disadvantaged children in grades 1 through 4 were studies. Both groups of children dramatized stories…