Intended primarily for Kentucky classroom teachers and administrators, this idea book first identifies three major issues that members of the Writing Advisory Committee felt should be addressed so that writing instruction will not suffer because of use of the writing portfolio. The broad issues emphasized in the idea book are for teachers to: (1)…

Many traditionally held academic views of personal writing have myths embedded in them. These myths include: (1) anything written in the first person singular is autobiographical; (2) personal writing can only exist in an expressionist classroom and is often uncritical and unproblematic; (3) student personal writing is a dying genre, and college…

This book dares educators to rethink their beliefs about how they design writing workshops, use writer's notebooks, choose appropriate genres, teach spelling, help students connect their reading to their writing, and even edit and publish students' writing. Filled with stories and work samples of real children in a diverse urban setting, the book…

Argues that when students interrupt their thought flow during composition writing to edit language, syntax, or mechanics, the pauses obstruct fluency and dilute concentration. Use of the word processor for invisible composition is described to show how computers reduce time spent on composing and alter quantity and quality of time. (MBR)

Analyzes the writing processes of a businessman-engineer and discovers that not all of the generalizations about composing are borne out in the way the subject writes. (FL)

Responds to criticisms from the preceding article that writing process research, specifically that of the author, has not extricated itself from pedagogy and the classroom. (HTH)

Discusses the use of models for teaching children to write, suggesting that successive drafts rather than a finished poem used as models of the revision process might be more effective. Includes three drafts of a poem by the author, discussing observations for teaching illustrated by the poem's revision process. (HTH)

Looks at three articles that demonstrate how current research and theory on composition is insisting that the rhetorical concerns of "audience" and "purpose" are integral to the processes of writing. Discusses how these articles narrow the pedagogical gap between writing process theory and rhetorical concerns. (HTH)

Focusing on the composing process, this series of articles discusses improving composing by exploring personal experience and the use of computers and specific computer composition programs for teaching writing. (HTH)

Argues that writers gain skill in manipulating syntactic structures as they learn to engage in reflexive reading of complex texts. (MM)

Recommends drama as a technique to help children make a bridge between thinking and writing. (JL)

Discusses the writing process as it is represented in recent research and practice, with emphasis on (1) rhetorical concerns; (2) the arts of invention, style, and arrangement; and (3) efforts to expand writing instruction beyond traditional courses and disciplines. Recognizes a shift that characterizes writing as rhetorical problem solving.…

Brief essays discuss (1) a teacher's discovery of the difficulty of the writing process, (2) various methods of writing instruction that are still only a part of the whole, (3) the difference between children's writing at home and at school, (4) a method for teaching poetry, and (5) a fifth-grade book writing project for first-grade students. (HTH)

Presents five research-based writing models to help student writers analyze their composition processes: (1) discovery, (2) direct writing process, (3) five-stage process, (4) write-talk-write, and (5) four key questions. Discusses advantages and disadvantages of each model. (PD)

Explores how poetry differs from other modes of discourse and how poetry should be taught. (AEA)