Making connections between children's existing means of expression (play, art, and movement) and the intricacies of print is a necessary and time-honored approach to writing instruction in the early years of school, yet, after kindergarten, one that is easily overlooked. In this article, we examine an approach to writing instruction for…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to work toward more fully conceptualizing literacy practices as social by theorizing the combined relational and intellectual context for learning. This context is created through students' and their teachers' uses of language. In particular, the quality of language that creates this intellectual relational…

School administrators have the challenge of providing high-quality education in all subject areas. Along with this task, administrators must wade through countless programs, curriculums, while ensuring that student needs are met along with required state and local test scores. While the focus on reform has been in math and science, writing…

Increased emphasis on standardization in primary grades can stifle spontaneous literacy play. The authors argue that allowing playful, collaborative, multimodal literacies into primary classrooms and specifically in writers' workshop can expand and enliven the way we see students' literacy strengths. The authors look closely at the unique…

Writing is an essential component of young children's early literacy development, and active participation in writing instruction contributes to their growth as writers. Providing engaging writing instruction to meet the academically diverse needs of young learners, however, can challenge early childhood teachers. The purpose of this study was to…

This article describes how one such teacher, Shirley Thacker, developed and implemented a successful writing program in her first grade classroom, which is known as Thackerville. Shirley describes how she motivated a classroom of first-graders to use the writing process in a workshop format and how this approach affected the children's perceptions…

McCarry, a first grade teacher, formed a voluntary writing group, Writers' Lunch Club, that met the developmental and individual needs of children and inspired enthusiasm and writing success. In the article, she explains the guidelines, compares the club's writing strategies with those in the classroom, and lists tips and benefits.

This is a qualitative case study (conducted in an urban, public school classroom in the United States) of the collaborative composing processes of two groups of first-grade students designated as English Language Learners (ELLs) as they wrote in a writing workshop context. I focused on a specific type of the students' hybrid composing practices:…

Writing Workshop is an interactive approach to teaching writing as students learn and practice the importance of rehearsal, drafting/revising, and editing their pieces of writing (Calkins, 1986; Graves, 1983). This study implemented a mixed methodology design incorporating qualitative and quantitative analysis (Mills, 2007) by administering a pre…

Presents guidelines used by a first-grade teacher to teach students to write fictional stories based on things they know and using children's literature as models. Describes the benefits of writing workshops and outlines a method for teaching techniques that professional writers use. (SM)

Describes how a first grade teacher runs a "writer's workshop" based on the process approach to writing. Discusses how children develop their ideas for stories, share their writing with their peers, and decide whether or not to "publish" their writing. Notes that the students are enthusiastic about participating in the workshop. (RS)

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…