Outlines the Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition (CIRC) program, a sequenced and structured reading/language arts program used by elementary level students at Bracher School in Santa Clara, California. Describes several cooperative reading and writing activities used in this program. (MM)

Discusses how collaborative writing can be a tool for activating students' multiple voices and multiple versions of self and the world within the classroom. Describes three collaborative writing projects in which special education students discussed and wrote about important knowledge that was formed in their own contradictory moments. (MM)

Suggests using daily journals to fuse language experience techniques with opportunities for independent writing more characteristic of an emergent literacy perspective. Explains that journals combine group dictation with independent writing to involve children in purposeful literacy activities. (MG)