Asserts that 3- to 6-year-olds are capable of types of thinking previously thought possible only by older children and that they readily understand content organized into stories. Offers suggestions for providing a storytelling foundation in Montessori early childhood classrooms, including a "random words" challenge and use of abstract paintings…

Examined ways three fifth-grade teachers facilitated student notebook writing as part of an inquiry of electric circuits. Found that teachers promoted notebook writing through explicit instructions and prompts. Teachers provided frequent opportunities for writing, and checked that students had documented procedural aspects of investigations.…

The emergence of multimedia software in the classroom challenges the traditional use of single media as the medium for student communication. Educators need to know how to use this new technology as an effective tool in their students' learning. The purpose of this study was to observe how 18 students in a fourth grade class manipulate a…

This book provides insight into the interrelationship among students' writing, their thinking about their writing processes, and the language of instruction. It offers information on both common and diverse patterns of understanding among children experiencing the same instructional program and explores the influence of instructional language on…

A study investigated the effect of word processing on the quality of children's writing. Subjects were 32 fifth-graders in a public school in the suburban town of Livingston, New Jersey. One sample had access to computers in their classroom everyday for writing. The other sample group used computers once a week in the lab; their daily writing…

The making of a book is an effective way to instill pride in authorship and to emphasize the importance of writing to children. This guide finds that the finished product (the book) capitalizes on the language background of each child, becomes an extension of the natural language of children, and teaches children to value their work and to take…

This book calls for a radical reappraisal of the phenomenon of literacy, and hence for a profound shift in educational practice. Through close attention to the multitude of objects which children constantly produce (drawings, cuttings-out, writings, collages), the book suggests a set of principles that reveal the underlying coherence of children's…

This 127-item annotated bibliography contains books on literacy primarily published in the United Kingdom in 1995. In addition to an annotation, each entry provides author's name, full title, number of pages, place of publication and publisher, and ISBN number and price for both hardback and paperback editions when applicable. The bibliography is…

What do Slinky toys, sign language, clipboards, golf pencils, and a house icon have in common? They all are a part of the author's writing and reading program, which teaches children how to write, and then read what they have written. This book includes: effective strategies that address multiple learning styles; a ready-to-use form for ongoing…

A research project sought to raise reading achievement among senior Kindergarten students at Doncrest Public School (York, Ontario, Canada) to enable them to reach the Kindergarten reading standard and to maintain this level of reading over the summer months. In response to assessment data, the literacy program in Kindergarten was adapted to…

These three booklets include the works of student winners of the Richard A. Bove Migrant Student Poets and Writers Festival for the years 1994, 1995, and 1996. Each booklet contains approximately 25 short stories, essays, and poems written by migrant students ages 8-11, 12-15, and 16-19. First, second, and third place winners for each age group…

This book presents 15 essays that consider writing development from many different angles, creating a collage that focuses on how to help students develop into competent writers. The first section of the book consists of four chapters on how to support young writers. In the second section, the essays explore how a variety of issues influence…

These 10 fliers focus on strategies to improve students' writing. The fliers are: (1) Improving Writing (covers general points related to all types of writing); (2) Writing Narrative (covers the main points to writing narrative, helping children to build up a repertoire of different types of narrative); (3) Writing Poetry (covers the main points…

When children hear, write, and recite poetry, they understand more deeply the qualities of verse--the importance of sound, compactness, internal integrity, imagination, and line. Students' working collaboratively on poetry helps provide a safe structure for their creativity. This lesson plan for a unit on collaborations in poetry writing intended…

A substantial body of research elaborates and documents how practicing teachers support the writing development of young children (Atwell, 1987; Avery, 1993; Calkins, 1986, 1994; Graves, 1981; Lensmire, 1994; Routman, 2000). Yet, there is limited research about how preservice teachers learn about children's writing (Dahl and Farnan, 1998) or about…