This article illustrates not only how students with special needs grew as writers in an inclusive writing community, but also how a fourth-grade teacher systematically structured the learning environment and tailored her instruction to guide her students to develop as writers as well as to improve their language skills. (Contains 4 figures and a…

Teachers are coming to understand the value of using a student's interests, habits, and questions as a starting point for instruction. In this article, Skinner introduces "Teenage Addiction," a voluntary seventh-grade after-school writing/popular culture club that helped students view popular culture through a critical lens and then write about…

This paper describes, reflects on, and analyzes the process of engaging student writers in a creative-critical writing workshop in which they not only work toward presenting a portfolio of original work, but are engaged in performance, dramatic intervention, and creative challenges to texts. The paper explains how students are invited to meet…

Claims that asking students to evaluate their own reading and writing encourages more authentic assessment. Discusses guiding reflection in writing and reading workshops, and teacher responsibility for grading. Presents student comments that show students are able to self-evaluate and improve their efforts to justify higher ratings. (RS)

Suggests that there are three powerful ingredients that compose writing workshop block: time, ownership, and response. Notes that the child-centered nature of writing workshop is part of what makes it appeal to students. Considers how the fact that each child is accepted at his or her level allows for many differences in ability. (SG)

Proposes that when teachers structure the classroom around the student, differentiation starts to happen. Outlines the following suggestions in order to do so: make it meaningful; make it authentic; differentiate content; make it interdisciplinary; and practice what you preach. Concludes that if educators are willing to eliminate ineffective…

Addresses three questions: (1) what individual paths lead selected nonmainstream writers from the "Tenderloin" inner-city area of San Francisco to their craft; (2) how the contexts and relationships with the community support the growth of written expression; and (3) how this support affects individual and community growth. (MG)

Continues an exchange begun with the authors' April 1991 article in the same journal about a writers' workshop in one author's elementary school classroom. Describes her continuing process of questioning and strengthening a workshop approach to writing instruction. (SR)

Describes a cultural exchange program that brought high school writing students to Russia in the spring of 1991 for a writing workshop. Discusses how the writing workshop led to the exchange of folklore, games, social conventions, and ideas between Russian and U.S. students. (PRA)

Describes a conferenced writing program in a suburban St. Louis high school. Asserts that this kind of instruction is not merely the utopian ideal of writing teachers but a method that can and should be implemented in all schools. (PRA)

Describes how students can help evaluate each other in discussion groups and how this improves their writing. Asserts that students appreciate the scrutiny of the conferences and take their own writing much more seriously as a result. Describes this technique in the context of a high school writing workshop. (PRA)

Describes the goals of the New Standards Project, and the first Writing Calibration Workshop at the Sagamore on Lake George in New York. Asserts that the workshop experiment shows that there is enough agreement among English teachers to consider developing a system of common standards that does not depend upon a single examination. (PRA)

Describes how a teacher used teaching techniques employed in a writer's workshop classroom to build self-esteem in students with learning disabilities, without changing assignments, requirements, or expectations for these students. Shows that growth in self-esteem was a by-product of growth in writing skills. (SR)

Presents an interview with Niki and Alan McCurry, who discuss the uses and features of the "Alaska Writing Program," a computer software product that can be used in writing classrooms. Explains its origins, shows how it centers on the writing process, and discusses ways of using the program in the classroom. (HB)

Considers the importance of writing workshops, especially those carried on outside of traditional academic environments. Argues for the value and widespread nature of these workshops. Claims that scholars have neglected the "extracurriculum" of composition as carried out in contexts other than the academy. (HB)