Describes a successful unit of study on poetry in a fifth grade class that ended with students each writing a sonnet as a final project. (SR)

Describes a successful program of "contemplation writing," in which, through a counting technique and a music technique, children learn how to contemplate their inner experience, write about it, and discuss it. (SR)

Advocates using literature logs and literature discussion groups as an effective way to develop a community of readers. Looks at the different kinds of comments and questions that a class of fifth graders wrote in their literature logs. (SR)

Considers biography-centered learning as a model for teaching social studies in elementary school. Provides a sequence of steps and a description of each to help students read and write biography as a knowledge transforming process. Claims students learn to do research and write, both vital to a democratic society. (NL)

Suggesting that poetry can be inserted into any classroom in any curricular area, this paper discusses reading and writing poetry in middle school classrooms. The paper begins with advice on reading poetry in content classrooms, and then presents a 31-item bibliography of poetry sources "for browsing." The paper then presents tips for writing…

The first edition of this book in 1987 examined how teachers teach and how learners learn in the context of reading and writing workshops for middle school students. This revised edition still stresses the workshop approach to writing and English instruction, but it calls for a more activist approach by the teacher, encouraging more direction and…

Data on the implementation of state-mandated portfolio assessment guidelines were collected in a class of 25 fourth-grade students in a Kentucky urban school, using participant observation, interviews, and document analysis. The use of computers as word processors was found to facilitate students' ability to read their work aloud to their class,…

Four studies by the Cognitive Strategy Instruction in Writing project at the Institute for Research on Teaching, Michigan State University, examined the acquisition of expository writing skills in fifth and sixth grade students. The first study examined the effects of teaching sixth grade students about comparison/contrast text structure. Results…