Notes that if students are able to publish, they are often more interested in engaging in the messy, challenging, rewarding process of writing. Describes experiences in writing letters to the editor and letters of appreciation or complaint. Concludes that through these experiences, students see how writing is powerful, accomplishes specific…

Notes the difficulty in writing a newspaper column and gives several questions and responses to consider. Discusses what a column should do, how a column should be written, and questions to consider. Presents a sample page with an explanation of several different columns. (SC)

Offers an interview with poet X. J. Kennedy, winner of the prestigious National Council of Teachers of English Award for Poetry for Children for the year 2000. Outlines how he began writing poetry, his work writing poetry for adults, and how he began writing poems for children. Offers an overview of his work. (SR)

Outlines detrimental effects of word processing in the composition classroom on planning, reading, organizing, revising, error detection, and spelling and vocabulary skill development. Discusses strategies instructors can use to teach students to use the computer at each stage of the writing process in ways that encourage and develop the…

Shares information from conversations with Jerrie Oughton, writer of three novels and two picture books. Discusses her long road to publication; retelling traditional narratives; layers of setting, place, and character; story and life; her writing process; and life after publication. (SR)

Presents an interview with Jerry Stanley in which he talks frankly about his view of history, his writing process, the creation of his historical works, and his personal past. (SG)

Discusses how current scholarship argues against one-shot, high-stakes writing tasks. Presents work from students that were part of a team-taught curriculum that coordinated writing and reading classes. Designs activities that would provide a core of material for students to draw on in their final testing situations. (SG)

Presents an interview with author Jack Gantos, whose career spans almost 25 years. Notes how he spoke passionately about his craft and about supporting emerging writers. Discusses how avid journaling is one technique that he uses that could benefit anyone. (SG)

Presents an interview with Randy Powell, an author who has published several novels about teenagers who are finding their way through unsettled lives. Shares his belief that when you write from the heart, you do not have any choice about the themes and stories you write; they choose you as much as you choose them. (SG)

Presents an interview with author T.A. Barron. Discusses his career as a writer, his connection to the natural world, and his work as a writer of fantasy. (SG)

Investigated university students' beliefs about themselves as writers and about the experience of learning in writing as related to writing approaches measured by the Inventory of Processes in College Composition. Found support for the deep and surface paradigm, and variation in students' conceptions of writing, attitudes about themselves as…

Middle school educators can enhance the quality of education in the classroom by obtaining grants for special projects. Grants, which can be used to improve instruction, upgrade equipment, and implement innovative programs, are available from local, state, and federal agencies, nonprofit foundations, and private corporations. Overall, millions of…

Process approaches to writing instruction in primary-grade classrooms have become widespread due to the influence of Graves (1983), Calkins (1986), Avery (1993), and others. Their work emphasizes expressive writing, particularly personal narrative, more than expository or informational writing. As a consequence, expressive writing is what children…

Katherine Pierpont tells of the creation and development of the popular children's book, "Olivia Forms a Band," by author/illustrator Ian Falconer. In this story, Olivia, a pig, and her mother, father , and brothers are off to have a picnic and see fireworks. Olivia insists that if there are fireworks, there must be a band, even if she must…

This article considers the potential for dissonance that one 12-year-old child (Clare) may experience as a text producer using new technologies, when working across a range of contexts. In this ongoing case study, two types of text are explored: a computer-generated text produced as a homework task for school, and texts produced using an…