Explores children's working knowledge of narrative, scientific, and poetic genres. Finds that children had significantly more experience with narrative genres than either scientific or poetic genres; and possessed more knowledge of text structure than micro-level features such as cohesion markers. Contributes to theorizing genre learning as a…

A study examined topic selection and spelling development in kindergarten students' journal writing. Subjects, 19 kindergarten students enrolled in a middle-class school, were informally interviewed about their writing. The students' writing topics were categorized and their spelling analyzed. Results indicated that the children were able to…

Discusses basic strokes, stroke sequence rules, and motor aspects of drawing in writing Chinese characters. Finds mastery of proper stroke sequence is low even for familiar characters. Discusses three main groups of errors children made. Explores educational implications for the teaching of stroke sequences in the teaching of handwriting based on…

One segment of a year-long descriptive field study of school writing is described in this paper. In particular, the paper examines some of the uses to which writing is put in the first weeks of school in one second/third grade classroom. In doing this, the paper speculates on the writing curriculum in elementary schools and on the realization of…

Examines the concept of "word" in beginning literacy, where children were assigned typical concepts of word tasks (copying from the board, writing from dictation, free writing) at the beginning and end of the year. Compares spelling scores with the concept of word measures. Finds a developmental hierarchy in concept of word acquisition…

Investigates the effect of the environment on kindergarten children's development of the seven functions of writing (as described by M. A. K. Halliday). Concludes that children in an environment that emphasizes the functions of writing gain better knowledge of writing functions than do children whose environment lacks such emphasis. (ARH)

Finds that lower-level developmental variables are related to beginning writing skills. Identifies an orthographic-linguistic dimension and an automaticity dimension in the battery of developmental skills and writing products. (RS)

Offers a case study of a child who used school writing activities to perform rather than simply to communicate. Finds that, although the child's language resources contributed greatly to his success with written language, they did not always fit comfortably into the writing workshop used in his classroom. (PRA)

Examines the role of imagination in literacy learning using data collected over a 5-year period in the author's primary classrooms. Notes that the study progressed to a conceptual structure that proposes an inside-out theory of literacy learning. Argues that to be successful and meaningful to all, literacy teaching must begin and end with a focus…

A study explored the effect of different kinds of music on children's writing content. Nineteen students from a second grade class in Charlottesville, Virginia, participated in 10 15-minute writing sessions, accompanied in each session by one type of background music (classical, jazz, popular, or country) or by silence. All writing was analyzed…

A theoretical framework of written language use and development that emerged from a two-year case study of one child's writing at home and in school during kindergarten and first grade is presented. First, the paper describes three elements which are found throughout the framework: the social web of experience, writing as relationships, and…

Compares and describes written language environments of kindergarten children in Scandinavia, Great Britain, and the United States. Finds a lack of written language in Scandinavian kindergartens, writing in the context of interactive play in Great Britain, and either academic writing instruction or developmentally appropriate print-rich…

Chronicles a research project that collected and examined first-grade children's writing over a year. Develops a system for classifying the children's genres that has two major groups: writing about actions/events; and writing about objects/things. Describes emergent genres of writing from the children, looking beyond spelling. Cites active roles…

Explores the influence of diverse approaches on third-grade students' stance in writing literary responses and the complexity of their responses. Finds that in the final response, the literary approach affected whether students wrote from an aesthetic or literary analysis stance. (PA)

Gathers qualitative and quantitative measures in a formative analysis of the Writing to Read program. Finds that qualitative measures supported student, parent, and teacher satisfaction related to the program and that some statistically significant differences were found between first- and second-grade Writing to Read students and control…