Reviews Linda Cleary's "From the Other Side of the Desk: Students Speak Out about Writing." Discusses outer and inner voices, writing problems, evaluation, analysis and exposition, and signs of hope. (PRA)

Reviews "Written Language Assessment" (WLA), a new standardized test to evaluate children's and adolescents' written language competence by having students write essays instead of answer multiple choice questions. Finds problems with the WLA in terms of interrater reliability. (RS)

Describes and reviews a software package called "Writers Network," a writing program that contains teacher tools to minimize the difficulty in evaluating student writing and gives student tools to improve their writing. Notes that this program fosters enthusiastic interest in writing across the curriculum in teachers who might have not used…

Reviews three texts (published in 1991 or 1992) dealing with portfolio assessment in the reading and writing classroom. Notes that portfolios are powerful agents of change and need to be approached cautiously. (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."…

Recommends 14 recently published books on writing. Groups the books in 6 categories: assessment, classroom publishing, foundations, insights from writers, classroom descriptions, and general information. (MG)

Evaluates and analyzes four recent theoretical and pedagogical books concerned with writing portfolios for teachers of writing. Discusses various issues and theoretical concerns of practitioners advocating the use of portfolios. (HB)