Asserts that writing conferences are the heart of teaching writing. Describes use of picture books and writer's circles to improve student reading and writing skills. Reports that students became more confident in analyzing writing genres and more able to write complex narratives. (CFR)

Describes how Head Start teachers can support children's emergent literacy by improving their classroom environment. Includes suggestions for designing the floor plan, enriching the print environment within each learning center, and making the literacy center the classroom's focal point. (KB)

Discusses the lives and poetry of two female writers from Greek antiquity, Sappho and Praxilla. Describes using Sappho's poems with sixth graders and includes some student poems written in response. Describes using Praxilla as a writing model in conjunction with Sappho while teaching American high school students. (SR)

Describes how the author used class letter writing to fulfill both academic functions and affective functions. Discusses the remarkably different results produced using two different methods (a class newsletter and an electronic forum), noting that circumstances of the class and the purpose of the instructor help determine which method is more…

Reflects on how the author's third-grade students, experienced in literary conversation from their reading workshop, transferred the practice of literary conversation to their writing workshop. (SR)

Asserts that, while most elementary classrooms have become workshop communities in which teachers and students share reading and writing, many teachers are unsure how to extend the workshop into an environment in which rigorous teaching about the craft of writing takes place. Argues that learning to write well is not divorced from authentic…

Describes the development and implementation of a curriculum model seeking to integrate the study of different types of text in a coherent and meaningful way. Explains the rationale of the model, supported by exemplar tasks designed by teachers working within the context of an integrated English, media and drama curriculum. Evaluates the impact of…

Outlines findings from a pilot project by the Centre for Research on Literacy and the Media (England) in which primary school pupils adapted a text from a print into a moving image medium (animation). Examines the impact of this translation on pupils' print literacy. Suggests that informed practical use of media can have benefits for the pupils'…

Describes a 10-week unit in an eighth-grade English class focusing on social-action writing. Describes how the process involved convincing students of their ability to make a difference, studying persuasive writing, reading and discussing to wake up their social consciences, using various strategies to choose topics, and finally culminating in…

Describes how one writing center with many English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students has integrated the "cultural informant" role of tutors with their role of teaching self-editing strategies. Reviews the process of introducing ESL students to use of a learner's dictionary, minimal marking, and error logs. Offers examples of using these…

Argues that networked classrooms offer a number of opportunities for effective writing instruction. Argues that shared discourse in the networked-computer classroom has three levels forming a continuum of interactivity: students sending messages "at,""to," and "between" each other. Offers classroom examples of each level of discourse. (SR)

Describes how using conferencing software in a computer-assisted writing environment became a catalyst for a distinctive learning ecology that interrelated prosocial student behaviors, learner-centered teaching, and assessment. Argues that the conferencing class not only helped students apply critical thinking and problem-solving skills in…

Two studies compared handwriting, word processing, and word prediction with speech-synthesis software (PR) with three intermediate-grade students with severe spelling problems. Results suggested that PR software can improve the writing of such students under certain circumstances but that constraints, such as the difficulty of using the software,…

Describes the justification for design and implementation of a UNIX-based computer-assisted language-instruction system using a network of workstations containing functions useful for instructors and students as well as researchers. The present investigation is aimed at teaching writing to Japanese students at the University of Aizu in Japan.…

Discusses Garth Boomer's 1989 keynote address. Suggests it prefigured debates central to English teachers' professional development, to the pages of his journal, in Australia's classrooms for the next 10 years on the following issues: (1) progressivism/critical literacy divide; (2) variations on the genre debate; (3) reader-response theory vs.…