The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of a first grade student's writing at home, school, and university program on her written expression skills. In the research, all the student's writing was on subjects that she was interested in or ones she chose to write about from her lived experiences or familiar events. A case study method was…

Drawing on four years of anecdotal data and student feedback on course evaluations, this paper provides a retrospective account of the author's experience with teacher candidates in an elementary writing instruction course as first-time authors of children's books, in particular focusing on a writing workshop approach as an effective pedagogical…

Trickster tales, with their teachings on how to behave in the world, are a powerful means for transmitting social knowledge and cultural mores to children. In this study we compared two approaches to teaching fourth-grade students to write trickster tales. Although both instructional methods incorporated aspects of the writing process approach,…

Describes a process writing approach which encourages students to write about true events, rather than about their favorite television shows. (MM)

Argues that writing to a real audience in the form of a letter is an effective way for students to learn the importance of audience in writing. Stresses the idea that students who are intimidated by the writing process will view letter writing in a more positive light and be more amenable to the learning process. Describes a specific…

Discusses four recent writing books: "Teaching to Write: Theory Into Practice" (Jane B. Hughey and Charlotte Slack); "The Writing Teacher's Handbook" (Jo Phenix); "Scaffolding Young Writers: A Writers' Workshop Approach" (Linda J. Dorn and Carla Soffos); and "Directing the Writing Workshop: An Elementary Teacher's Handbook" (Jean Wallace Gillet…

Describes how a shared poetry exercise, combining whole language experiences with process writing techniques, motivates remedial readers. Notes that this technique helps remedial readers achieve success in writing, build sight and meaning vocabularies, and improve reading fluency. (MM)

Intended for teaching assistants and non-writing specialists to whom students come for help in preparing assigned writing papers, this guide suggests questions and comments to ask such students to help them clarify what is happening, or not happening, in their writing, and in the thinking which this writing reveals. The guide roughly parallels…

At a time when many public school teachers and administrators are limiting instructional goals to the lower level objectives found on standardized tests, there is a need for classroom activities derived from higher purposes. Conceptual analysis, which relates abstract concepts to the lives of students, meets this need. While focusing primarily on…