Utilizing a New Literacies Studies framework, this article presents critical lessons in film production from a multiple site case study. Examples of children's classroom experiences demonstrate how filmmaking and play come together in a process of storying--a collaborative and multimodal approach to text composition. Students in both preschool and…

In this article, the authors propose a revised way of thinking about reading levels, one that promotes a wider and more flexible view of teacher decision making about the use of leveled texts in classrooms. They share five key principles to consider when looking at the use of instruction that involves matching leveled materials with readers.…

Schools bring people together. Yet for many children there are major discontinuities between their lives in and out of school and such differences impact on literacy teaching and learning in both predictable and unpredictable ways. However if schools were reconceptualised as meeting places, where different people are thrown together (Massey, 2005)…

This fourth article in a series on the writing process describes one child's writing process and draws implications for teaching first grade writing. (DD)

Using a case study approach, the authors describe how a teacher used the tools of systemic functional linguistics (SFL) to teach her fifth grade English Language Learners how to use academic language to challenge school policies regarding recess. In reflecting on these data, we discuss the potential of SFL to support teachers in responding to…

Focuses on what the authors have learned from six exemplary teachers of writing who teach within high-stakes accountability systems. Notes that based on what they have seen in the teachers' classrooms and discussed with them and their students, their response to the reality of high-stakes testing is the need to "teach true and to the test in…

Describes how a remedial instructor joined forces with a regular classroom teacher and developed learning contexts that would enable students with learning difficulties to experience success at academic tasks through shared learning. (HTH)

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

A memorization technique using books recorded on tapes gave nonreading children practice in reading connected discourse and put them in touch with a variety of books. (JH)

Follows a six-year-old boy and his writing-revising experiences at school, demonstrating how his independence as a writer develops. Teacher and peers initiate interactions with the writer as he listens and responds and gradually learns how to discuss writing and learns a sense of the purpose of revision. (HTH)

Discusses one teacher's gradual acceptance of poetry as a useful means for teaching many areas of the language arts. Includes a case study of one student's growth as a poet. (HTH)

Presents observations on the effects of a word processing program developed for first-grade students. Focuses on the composing and transcribing abilities of six students, representing the range of abilities in the class. (HTH)

Shows how the classroom environment provided by a second- grade teacher allowed one of her students to experience her own writing process and develop as a writer. (RL)

Argues the importance of dictated stories, with the teacher or other adult as scribe, in children's development as writers. Examines one child's literary influences and her literacy development. (MG)

Compares the learning and writing experiences of a child during his kindergarten year (with frequent immersion in reading and writing activities in their writing workshop) to his first-grade year (with worksheets and decontextualized exercises). Critically examines such "serious" literacy learning that lacks a real audience and a real…