This article describes how one such teacher, Shirley Thacker, developed and implemented a successful writing program in her first grade classroom, which is known as Thackerville. Shirley describes how she motivated a classroom of first-graders to use the writing process in a workshop format and how this approach affected the children's perceptions…

This article explores the ways three young students expressed their perceptions about literacy and investigates how their classroom identity shapes and is shaped by those perceptions. The ways in which positioning within a writing event and the classroom culture contributed to the development of writing voice and identity are examined. In…

Discusses the ways in which a high school basic writing teacher abandoned the advice about her students offered by her colleagues and chose instead to develop a student-centered writing workshop. Demonstrates the potential a workshop model has for creating a community of authors in a high school basic writing class. (RS)

Suggests that one of the greatest outlets for the middle school voices in one particular classroom is the students' immersion into poetry during writing workshops. Describes a classroom environment that encourages children to express themselves in writing, speech, and action each day. Presents numerous examples of students' poetry. (RS)

Mikhail Bakhtin's understanding of the medieval carnival--a time when life is turned upside down, social hierarchies are lifted, and the lines between performer and participant are blurred--provides a useful framework for understanding both liberatory and potentially threatening aspects of writing workshops in elementary schools. An experimental…

Discusses components that guide a teacher in creating a meaningful writing workshop for first graders: developing a trust in and commitment to writing opportunities, encouraging a five-step process of writing, organizing writing materials, providing a predictable routine, and working individually with each child. Emphasizes the importance of…

Shows how being part of a group of children interacting in a literate environment for one school year empowered a fourth grade Japanese student not only to improve dramatically his command of the English language but also to feel good about himself as he worked hard to do so. (MG)

Describes a multiage first- through third-grade classroom where the development of children's voices and their writing can happen slowly, in its own time. Uses children's poems to show how children discover the craft of writing through listening to other writers (fellow classmates and authors) in the ongoing process of hearing their own voices and…

Shares the experiences of one teacher who changed her way of teaching high school at-risk students by creating an environment that encouraged students to explore writing and reading topics of their choice. Finds that students changed and learned using the writing-reading workshop approach. (MG)

Several sections of a regular College Writing 1 class at Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania are comprised of a fairly equal number of native and nonnative speakers of English (advanced international students). This diverse writers' community engages throughout the 15-week fall semester in a workshop approach to writing development, following…

Combining three strategies, a composition instructor has attempted to bridge the gap between peer response and teacher expectation in the first-year writing course taught at Florida State University. The focus is on writing that is exploratory and based on personal experience. The instructor: (1) establishes a criteria for producing and evaluating…

This paper explores the importance of peer relations for the experiences and texts of children in a third-grade writing workshop. Peers, as an audience for children's writing, bring with them friendship, trust, and a "social energy" that empowers authors and their writing in the classroom. Simultaneously, peers also bring with them…

A collaborative student teaching team (involving a student teacher, classroom mentor, and university mentor) negotiated the fit between teacher preparation and middle school classroom life. Transcripts of weekly conferences and individual reflections highlighted the benefits of creating respectful environments, developing collegial relationships,…