Draws on research in a fourth-grade classroom to show that teachers can teach composing strategies that encourage a variety of ways of interacting socially while writing. Shares various views of social interaction and student choice in writing classrooms as a way of establishing support for exploration of the social interactions that occurred in…

A reading specialist provides tips for developing a student publishing center aimed at improving writing skills and involving students in all publishing operations. Steps include assembling a planning team, considering various models, gaining financial assistance, furnishing the center, gathering needed supplies, and launching the program. (MLH)

Over 2,500 secondary students in the Torrance (California) Unified School District who read below the 30th percentile on state tests have access to a second-chance program. Participants engage in extensive recreational reading and vocabulary development, address comprehension on multiple levels, and use writing to assist comprehension. (MLH)

Suggests that texts invite readers to read in certain ways. Demonstrates in more detail how different strategies for reading with, across and against the invited reading of a base text are transferable to writing strategies that explore alternative and oppositional views, values, ideologies and discourses within a social justice framework. (RS)

Claims compositionists misrecognize stylistic and institutionalized conventions of academic discourse in their own rhetoric and in the evaluation of their students. Argues that students should be included in the practices by which compositionists "normalize" these conventions. Suggests how students might be included in the evaluative…

Many students with learning disabilities (LD) exhibit deficiencies in the writing process. In order to achieve an adequate level of writing competence, these students must apply strategies that enable them to effectively plan, organize, write, and revise a written product. Explicit strategy instruction involving a structured style of learning has…

The writing teacher's foremost job is leading students to see the valuable ideas they have to express. Writing is a way to share those ideas with the world rather than a way to be wrong, Anderson asserts. Teachers and parents too often focus on errors in student writing. This focus gives students the impression that writing well is about avoiding…

One of the best ways for students to become involved in the classroom and engaged in their learning is to write. This article presents a rationale for the use of writing in any curriculum and offers suggestions about how to develop writing-to-learn assignments. Writing-to-learn assignments help students understand, reflect upon, and question…

This study investigated the presence and growth of kindergarten children's metacognition as they engaged in the writing process. The study was conducted in an environment that surrounded children with books, language, and print. Twice a month the teacher/researcher interviewed the children as they finished writing, asking questions designed to…

This article talks about situated writing lessons and describes how to use this strategy in disciplinary context. The concept of the situated writing lesson is similar to the concept of "strategy lessons" advocated by Nancie Atwell and other whole language teachers who discovered a need for short, context-specific teaching of language conventions.…

In this article, the author, a teacher at Gould School in North Caldwell, New Jersey, describes the five writing rules she employs in her classroom that can help make writing a priority for both students and teachers: (1) Put it in the plan book; (2) Write first, solve problems later; (3) Write with the students; (4) Write like the students; and…

The academic silos that house mathematics, science, and language skills must be broken down to better replicate how those disciplines mix in the real world. This article discusses the benefits of linking writing with mathematics, the challenges of integrating mathematics and writing, and the strategies for mathematics writing. Combining…

Although interest plays a large role in motivation and confidence, we need a clearer understanding of how teachers and classroom practices can influence students' interest for the act of writing. Rebecca L. Lipstein and K. Ann Renninger studied the perceptions of 178 students in grades 7, 8, and 9 to develop this understanding. They offer…

To help writing faculty learn the language of discourse communities across campus, we conducted faculty interviews as a first attempt to describe knowledge about disciplinary cultures, specifically with regard to writing. Based on the data received from the interviews about disciplinary definitions and characteristics of good writing and how…

Social-interactive Writing for English Language Learners (SWELL) is collaborative writing based on Topping's Paired Writing Method. The method was changed to meet the needs of English language learners. In both methods, pairs are formed according to proficiency, pairing a more advanced student (a Helper) with a less advanced one (a Writer). The…