This article discusses the work of Lucy McCormick Calkins, an educator and the visionary founding director of Teachers College Reading and Writing Project. Begun in 1981, the think tank and teacher training institute has since trained hundreds of thousands of educators across the country. Calkins is one of the original architects of the…

This book focuses on how to provide effective instruction to K-12 students who find writing challenging, including English language learners and those with learning disabilities or language impairments. Prominent experts illuminate the nature of writing difficulties and offer practical suggestions for building students' skills at the word,…

This study examined the writing development of English language learners (ELLs) in a fourth-grade bilingual classroom in Northern California. The purpose of this study was to explore the linguistic and cultural resources the students used to inform their writing and determine to what extent, if any, these resources influenced their writing. The…

The socioemotional factors, which influence students' trajectories on their pathways to reading success, are often overlooked in literacy screenings and reading instruction. This article outlines the connections between personality factors, in particular resilient personalities, and early literacy success. It also offers teachers a series of six…

In the year 2000, what started as an isolated pedagogical gambit at Glendale Community College (GCC) in Southern California has evolved into a program-wide initiative to revise the developmental composition curriculum and boost student learning outcomes. One instructor, frustrated with poor student motivation and success in his precollegiate…

The Presenters' Collaborative Network (PCN) was started in 2002 to support the creation of a corps of teacher-consultants who would lead workshops for the Rhode Island Writing Project (RIWP) at local schools and conferences. The PCN is a group of teachers, past participants from summer institutes or year-round embedded programs in schools that…

A writing workshop is a pedagogical tool that can create a more productive experience for teachers and students alike. Business students who have used this technique with experienced instructors agree that a well-planned writing workshop can be useful for dispelling writing fears, furthering understanding of business communication skills,…

This article presents a case study of a kindergarten girl from a Bangladeshi immigrant family who demonstrates her multiliteracies as she negotiates the multiple demands of the mandated literacy curriculum. The case is drawn from a year-long ethnographic inquiry of the literacy practices and cultural models in a balanced literacy curriculum where…

Describes a workshop on "slam poetry" and details how this form of performance poetry can lead students back to the written poem with a renewed sense of connection and understanding. Suggests a class exercise that can be adapted to either a creative writing or a literature unit. (SG)

Considers how the author has seen the best minds of his generation destroyed by faulty pedagogy. Argues that the traditional workshop model was designed as a method for teaching elite graduate students, but notes that many undergraduate poetry writing instructors still employ it. Presents and elaborates on an alternative "Five-Canon" approach to…

Considers whether dramatic play with toys would be as important for beginning readers and whether it could be used to support their story writing. Discusses the introduction of toys to the writers' workshop. Considers how to reflect on the physical world as a source for story ideas. (SG)

Describes Youth Speaks NY Fifth Annual Teen Poetry Slam. Considers how Youth Speaks offers free after school writing workshops for teens. Notes that this nonprofit spoken word program Youth Speaks plays host to an auditorium of teen poets who "bust at the seams with verse." (SG)

Desiring to communicate clearly, one principal found his writer's workshop a safe environment for clarifying his thoughts. Writing in reflection takes educators through professional dilemmas and helps them develop a position and a direction for their work with children. No other medium provides this growth and empowerment. (MLH)

Describes the preconceived ideas that adolescents have regarding the reading and writing of poetry. Explains the author's nontraditional high school classroom and its methodology. States that the class is run like a reading and writing workshop. Emphasizes the importance of students' ownership of their ideas. Concludes that adolescents can be…

Points out ways (writing, presenting, reflection) that the Writing Project hones skills and makes sharp once again teachers worn down by the daily grind of teaching. (SR)