Examines the writing of a four-year-old child in response to literature. Discusses the child's uses for writing and the concepts and principles of early writing. Demonstrates the child's engagement with children's books. (RS)

Presents a case study of a fourth-grade boy who was an active, intelligent boy who was not coping well with reading and writing in school. Discusses observations of, and conversations with, the boy and his parents in their home. Demonstrates the importance of educators' having a family perspective on students' language and literacy development.…

Examines three children's early experiences of school literacy lessons to consider what makes a difference in their relative success and failure during the first months of school. Argues that how, whether, and to what extent children take up what teachers make available to them is inextricably connected with the repertoires of practices and…

Illustrates how classroom talk that includes students, families, and teachers can create spaces in which students from diverse cultural backgrounds negotiate purposeful literacy practices. Presents two versions of a story of a family visit, the first version reflects an educator's understanding of the visit at the time and the second reflects the…

Examines a collaborative inquiry study group that provides a context for increased engagement and risk-taking by a struggling, young writer. Captures the process of one child's literacy activities during six weeks of inquiry study that transformed his attitude toward reading and writing as well as his confidence in his own capabilities. (SG)

Recognizes the essential role parents play in teaching and learning, the importance of developing both compassion and intelligence, and a shared responsibility for creating a more equitable world. Focuses on two sets of written conversations that parents and children created after reading texts about civil rights and human rights. (SG)

Describes the growing autonomy of three young siblings as they wrote in the poetic function over a five-year period. Includes samples of the children's poetry. (HTH)

Examines progressively more competent writing samples from a third grader's journal to illustrate the possibilities for using journals "across the curriculum." (HTH)

Follows the development, from fifth grade through eighth grade, of a student poet, who can teach educators what it means to "feel expressed." Offers new ways to think about who children are, what they need to say, and what they need to be taught. Discusses the possibilities of poetry for gaining access to children's deepest capacities for…

Maintains that early formative experiences have a strong impact on the way beginning teachers think about teaching and about becoming professionals, and that teacher training institutions must accommodate and deal with the autobiographies of preservice teachers; otherwise, future beginning teachers will teach as they were taught. (SR)

Presents the story of one urban, African American, third-grade girl's writing. Discusses the roles that teachers, peers, and cultural contexts play in children's growth into--and against--the life and literacy that surrounds them. (SR)

Provides a single lens view of the operation of the complex phenomenon of intertextuality (interpreting one text by means of a previously composed text) in one first grade classroom from one perspective. Finds that young children's writing is influenced in a complex way by texts that have been read to them. (RS)

Illuminates patterns in responses to literature by analyzing one sixth grader's entries written in her literature response journal. Finds that the student's responses reveal her as an active reader and writer with unique thoughts, feelings. and opinions generated by quality children's literature. (MG)

Presents overall conclusions from research and case studies of four children who showed indicators of emerging biliteracy and cultural sensitivity in a language arts class where the inherent link between culture and language was evident. Illustrates how the language arts instruction in a bilingual classroom affected children's growth in a second…

Presents a case study of one fourth-grade teacher researcher. Documents the teacher's initial reticence toward teacher research, how being part of a group was central to her participation, and how her preferences for methods of data collection and methods for presenting teacher research findings differed from the preferred methods of the group…