This article explores how a first grade class re-defines what constitutes writing achievement. The young children's authoring practices upended notions of writing as the individual production of "model" texts with predetermined features, as was emphasized in curricular guidelines and high-stakes assessments, and of writing as disembedded from…

How did elementary language arts teachers of yore respond to policy issues in their own day? A review of the first two volumes of Language Arts, then called The Elementary English Review (1924-1925), suggests the journal served as a dynamic and productive space for language arts teachers and scholars to share their work and debate its merit. Much…

Describes a reading program focused on comprehension and defends it as being student-centered, as keeping language and thought intact, and as beginning and ending with meaning. (DD)

Follows the progress of three young boys as they learn to collaborate in school. Shows the importance of allowing students to talk through their writing and reading tasks and to recognize the social and listening skills that develop along with their writing. (MG)

Now, as in the past, the art of the language arts teacher lies in the ability to move the student to involvement and inquiry. (DD)

Describes three approaches to language arts instruction--student centered/integrated, content centered/segmented, and a combination of these two--and examines the strong and weak points of each. (HTH)

Focuses on the limitations of the concepts of empowerment, liberation education, and critical pedagogy. Implies that teachers play an important and largely underdeveloped role as change agents in the empowerment of learners, and provides a framework for understanding what has to happen for individuals to become empowered. (MG)

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

Drama is unique in providing an (inter)active context wherein participants can comprehend and stretch the limits of their day-to-day realities through the embodiment of critical reflection and both rehearsed and improvised action. The purpose of this article is to provide evidence from the authors' work as teachers, drama facilitators, and…

Discusses the writing of 12-year-old boys who write daily. Presents case studies of five individual boys and describes their genre choices, individual writing strengths and weaknesses, and attitudes toward the writing process. (SKC)

Among the techniques used by successful teacher-writers such as Herbert Kohl, Phillip Lopate, and James Herndon in teaching writing are the use of extensive speaking activities, the accommodation of different writing habits, the admission that writing is difficult, and the use of varied media. (ET)

Interviews children in a collaborative learning classroom to understand their perceptions of collaborative learning. (MG)

Looks into the functions of children's writing to determine what children can meaningfully write about. Discusses research on the functions of writing and then suggests assignments where children write letters to different audiences, such as to themselves and to their future children. These assignments help children learn about themselves. (SKC)

Reports on successfully using letter writing and dialogue journals in a classroom where the children's writing tended to be remarkable similar because they did not insert their personalities into their writing. Their writing grew individualistic, and their vocabularies improved through invented spelling. (SKC)

Discusses the field of educational publishing and argues that the majority of textbooks reflect static programs and packages and prescribed curricula. Also argues that because teachers are learning to adapt their instructional materials to their own purposes, textbook publishers will have to change both the content and pedagogy of their texts.…