Describes a poetry teaching method in which prereading strategies are used to spark interest and focus on those devices students are expected to learn. Presents samples of poems students wrote imitating devices in the model. Notes that, although not all students became fans of poetry, they developed an appreciation for the poet's task. (RS)

Describes a six-week poetry writing workshop for an eighth-grade class. Discusses getting started, two weeks of immersion in reading poetry, students writing their own poetry, creating a community of poets in the classroom, evaluation, students' poetry, and what the teacher learned. Notes that students gained a much richer understanding of poetry.…

Describes the use of dialogue journals to integrate reading and writing in a mixed-grade, mixed-ability (1-3) classroom. Describes student responses (retellings, clarifications, personal subjective responses, and interpretive comments). Advocates that students write continually as they read through a text. Demonstrates that dialogue journals can…

Describes a framework that helps seventh- and eight-grade readers write about what they notice, question, feel, and relate to (about the book they are reading) in reader response journals. Shows how, as a result, they deepen their involvement with and understanding and enjoyment of literature. (SR)

Describes a workplace literacy program that uses both workplace and participant-generated materials, including job descriptions, job procedures, training materials, newsletters, booklets, and memos. Shows how literacy development went beyond the survival stage to levels of empowerment and human development. (SR)

Describes how writing fiction helps students to write more effectively, think more critically, and enter difficult territory of complex issues. Illustrates how two students' stories led into discussions of meaning and values. (KEH)

Describes how students in a sixth-grade class connected reading and writing in the context of a project on traditional stories and new transformations of those old tales. Includes a 20-item annotated bibliography of transformations of traditional stories. (SR)

Presents a case study of poetry writing in a fifth grade classroom. Shows not only how writing and reading come together but also how children come together with each other and with published poets. (RS)

Guided story invention is a strategy for whole language instruction. The strategy stimulates construction of story and storylike passages, and incorporates: (1) student knowledge of story structure; (2) the reading and writing of meaningful text; (3) a focus on meaning as a function of teacher coaching; and (4) encouragement of self-monitoring of…

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)

In an effort to learn more about the teaching of reading and interpretation of poetry, a structured experiment was devised whereby college English majors used a combination of reading, writing and discussion to study James Wright's poem "A Blessing." The primary aim was to involve the students emotionally in a poem. Students were…

Describes a nonfiction genre study in a first-grade class in which reading and writing minilessons focused on nonfiction, and the children were required to read nonfiction and write a piece in that genre. Notes that, by the end of the nonfiction study, the group exhibited confidence and comfort with nonfiction. (SR)

Describes a project that introduced eighth graders to a wide range of classics (including Aesop, Confucius, Ovid, and Jean de La Fontaine). Shows how the author used these works to inspire the kids to write their own poems and stories. (SR)

Describes an exploration the author and his seventh-grade students undertook as they wrote essays about objects of personal significance. Describes how they examined a piece of literature (an essay) as a model for their own writing, how they spent some time talking and listening to one another about their personal objects, and how they then wrote…

Discusses how pretending to be a character or to help a character with a problem made reading and writing meaningful for middle school students. Describes activities that promoted writing about thinking, thinking as a character would, character integration, creating character journals, and relating to characters. (SR)