The ability to write is fundamental for learning and achievement across Grades K-12, performance in the workplace, continuing education, college, personal development, and addressing social justice. The majority of our students, however, are not capable writers. We have a body of evidence-based practices (EBPs) and best practices that can make a…

In the article "No Need to Reinvent the Wheel: Reading Instruction in a Time of Change" published in "English in Texas" in 2017, the authors, Ann D. David and Katrina Jansky, viewed reading instruction through five touchstones: time, choice, relevance, talk, and routines and rituals. This article expands on those touchstones by…

The Young Writers Program (YWP) is the latest writing workshop to be developed for the classroom. It challenges students to choose a topic and write a novel-length piece based on that topic, without worrying about spelling or grammar. While the foundation of this philosophy is solid, the support and structure of the Young Writers Program website…

The "International Society for the Social Studies (ISSS) Annual Conference Proceedings" is a peer-reviewed professional publication published once a year following the annual conference. The following papers are included in the 2014 proceedings: (1) Legal Profession in the Technological Era with Special Reference to Women Lawyers in…

Introduces Gary Paulsen as an author who deserves to be discovered and appreciated in the reading and writing workshop setting. Asserts that his appeal is widespread and that he is an author to be read aloud, to be listened to, and to be written about. Suggests activities for using Paulsen's works in the classroom. (PRA)

Describes the Writing Workshop (WW) program at Upland Elementary (Indiana) and how it emphasizes the use of doing rough drafts and revising them to teach writing. Recounts the stories of five grade-school children who blossomed in WW. Summarizes the steps in-process writing: rough drafts, self-editing, peer conferencing, teacher conferencing,…

At a writers' camp, teachers and children collaboratively write and learn together during the summer. Through student writing samples, this article shows how teachers and students apply journalistic techniques of observing, note-taking, and interviewing to collect information about their local community. Teachers and children taking part in the…

Drawing on theory and practice, the authors argue that, rather than trying to "cover" all grammatical skills, something traditionally done in many classrooms, and with limited results, teachers can more successfully teach less grammar with better results by focusing on key grammatical options and skills in the context of actual writing, throughout…

A new "remedial" or marginal group has emerged in teacher certification, known in Texas as Alternate Certification. In the Texas program, university graduates earn a certificate upon completion of a rigid state-mandated program. A group of 25 graduate students and their teacher set out to examine their notions of literacy, its…

Investigates how teaching and the teacher's role in elementary and secondary school writing classes have been conceptualized by leading workshop advocates. Uses M. Bakhtin's writing on F. Dostoevsky to develop a metaphor of the writing teacher as novelist. Argues that workshop visions of teaching and the teacher's role mystify meaning-making and…

Recent efforts to improve writing instruction include emphasizing writing as a process rather than a product, new evaluation methods, allowing students a more active role, providing a real audience, and using desktop publishing and the World Wide Web. Sidebars present parents' role, the connection between reading and writing, and a professional…

This article describes the goals, challenges, strategies, and successes of second-language teachers involved in The Books Project, in which teachers learned about writing workshops and received support to implement such workshops in their schools. The teachers involved found that they were particularly constrained by limited time, space, and…

This paper examines the teacher's role in elementary and secondary school writing workshops--the teacher as Dostoevskian novelist creates a classroom novel and takes up relations with student-characters. The paper focuses on: the rejection of traditional relations among novelist and character, teacher and student, and the embrace of new ones; how…

This compilation presents materials associated with the 5-week summer session of the Samford University Writing Project, 1991. The compilation begins with curriculum vitae of staff, teacher consultants, and guest speakers. The compilation also presents lists of group and committee members and daily logs written in by participants in a wide variety…

Providing personal yet professional guidelines for introducing students to the life of a writer, this book provides a rationale, a set of principles, and some possible methods for using small groups in writing workshops. The book discusses how small groups can provide growing writers with the four essentials which all writers need: time for…