Whether they have learning disabilities or just need extra help, struggling writers can improve their skills dramatically if they get the detailed, explicit instruction they need. This practical guidebook shows elementary school teachers how to make this systematic instruction part of their classroom. Educators will find a wide range of specific…

This book is designed to help students in elementary school identify core literary concepts such as character development, setting development, and plot development in the books they read, then integrate what they have learned into their own writing. The underlying assumption is that the reader is somewhat familiar with the 5-step writing process:…

Reflexivity, defined as the self-applied process of learning, the use of self and others as active signs in the learning process, is examined through relevant literature in English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) instruction. When EFL learners are encouraged to stand back and examine the way they learn and why they learn this way, reflexivity…

A practicum program was developed and implemented to improve narrative writing skills, composition skills, and related attitudes among the targeted second grade students. Objectives for the program were for: 75% of the students to increase their narrative writing skills by at least one proficiency level; 75% of the students to increase their…

A study examined the situated and idiosyncratic writing strategies of a stratified purposeful sampling of five second and third grade children and the interplay between their strategy use and the multi-layered instructional contexts created by their teacher. Over a period of one school year, qualitative data (field notes, interviews, tape…

The eight stages of storyboarding described in this book will help children design original picture books with illustrations and creative stories. The 24-frame storyboarding technique described in the book forces the young author/illustrator to jump right into the story, select only the most essential aspects of the plot, and describe the actions…

Frank Smith (1988) describes a "literacy club" as a classroom where no child is excluded from a wealth of reading and writing activities. One teacher, in designing a literacy club for his classroom, wanted to use a "balanced literacy" approach because using such an approach would allow him to incorporate many different…

This action research describes a program for improving writing skills. The targeted population consisted of first and third graders in two middle class communities in the southern suburbs of Chicago. The need for improvement in writing skills was documented through observation checklists, writing samples, and surveys. Data revealed a need for…

In spite of the widespread implementation of Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC), there remains little concrete evidence of the writing-thinking connection. This paper proposes a new research method that tracks students' performance and production at a deeper level of specificity than that in previous investigations of this relationship, e.g., in…

If personal writing empowers students to hear their own voices and to "see themselves as writers," then personal writing has value for basic writing students, whose voices have tended to be silenced and who see themselves as anything but writers. From hearing their voices in writing, and from identifying multiple sources and rhetorical…

The process oriented approach to English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) instruction has spurred such new ideas as student instruction and the whole language approach. New thinking justifies the validity of qualitative research, which lets researchers view subjects' learning processes from previously impossible angles. This paper examines ESL writing…

This monograph explains dysgraphia in students and offers a range of practical suggestions tailored to individual children with specific dysfunctions that obstruct the transcription of their thoughts to paper. Chapters address: (1) why students avoid writing and the need for students to understand the purpose of writing; (2) underlying processing…

This paper provides a summary of well established, conventional thinking on the importance of writing to the language learning process. Writing is a central element of language. Any reading and language arts program must consider the multidimensional nature of writing in instructional practices, assessment procedures, and language development. The…

The challenge of effective writing instruction was investigated by means of a literature review. Writing, as a part of the field of Language Arts, comprising reading, writing, listening and speaking, takes more than teaching spelling, grammar, and other writing conventions for students to develop as writers. The writing process--prewriting,…

Composition theory and research indicate that, whether they use a holistic or an analytic rubric, teachers should share their scoring guide with their students. Both students and teachers benefit in substantial ways when students draft and revise their written work in the context of the rubric their teachers will use to assess student writing.…