Discusses the Russian master, Leo Tolstoy, and the fact that he wrote pedagogical treatises besides novels. Talks about his free school for children on his estate and his research on education. Discusses two of Tolstoy's essays which recount interactions with the peasant children. Links this to teaching an adult writing workshop at a soup kitchen.…

Describes a one-day Exemplary Writers' Workshop designed to recognize the writing products of secondary students. Lists workshop goals: providing students with opportunities to interact with professional writers; letting students interact with higher education faculty; and providing students with information about becoming a published writer. (RS)

Recognizes a predominant pattern of elements for writers' workshop and categorizes these elements as the Seven C's: Climate, Choice of Literature, Communication, Coaching, Connection, Collaboration, and Chemistry. Elaborates on each "C." Concludes that after working cooperatively in a writers' workshop, the author was able to bring more meaningful…

Describes the author's experiences over four years in teaching writing. Notes how several Summer Writing Institutes influenced her teaching. Suggests the teaching of writing really takes place in the small connections the teacher helps the students make in their own words on the paper in front of them. (SG)

Describes events of the Maine Writing Project Summer Institute. Notes that what happened in this past summer's institute can serve as a model for the ways poetry can be integrated throughout educators' work with students and throughout the lives of educators. (SG)

States that a writing workshop environment is a radical approach to teaching, one that requires instructors to empower children to make choices and take responsibility for them. Discusses collaboration, classroom structures, and the need for democratic disposition in a writing workshop. Concludes that the implementation of a writing workshop…

Describes the Nebraska Literacy Project, a 5-week workshop for K-12 teachers modeled after the Nebraska Writing Project. Shows how teachers can encourage students to look closely at their own literacy histories and their daily practices as readers and writers. Presents the literacy histories as recorded by some participants. (HB)

Explores how issues of power and identity are embedded within the cultures of a first-grade writing classroom. Explores the ways in which children's instructional stances--their responses to the ways they are positioned as writers in the classroom--affect their literacy learning. Presents the theoretical and research contexts in which educator's…

Describes how a sixth-grade teacher turned sluggish Friday afternoons into student writing workshops. Students wrote essays on topics of their own choosing, exchanged papers with classmates to correct spelling and grammar, and provided each other with suggestions to improve the essays. Over the course of the school year, student writing improved…

Describes the five-week intensive writing program for talented high school students offered every summer by the Poynter Institute for Media Studies. Notes that the program emphasizes minority recruitment. Tells how the Poynter Institute offers assistance to any news organization or school wishing to set up a similar high school writing program.…

While recent arguments often propose that students should be engaged as writers in service to the larger community, the question remains how to engage students as intellectuals, writers, and creators of knowledge in an intellectual setting that mostly asks them to be passive learners. In Project Renaissance, leaving behind the familiar boundaries…

This paper provides an overview of the Computers and Writing Instruction Project, a field-tested curriculum for teaching writing to learning-disabled students consisting of a process approach, word processing, and strategy instruction. Its scope and sequence are described and guidelines for establishing a writer's workshop in the classroom…

This video is one of a four-part series which is designed to introduce teachers and parents to standards and teaching in a standards-based environment, and aims to help teachers and parents understand how teaching with standards can change classrooms, work assignments, and student performance. This video focuses on classrooms where the teachers…

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 presents insights from teachers nationwide who have experimented with writing workshops, describing what they see as the essential elements to their success (setting the tone, teacher-student and student-student communication, reflective thinking, high expectations, modeling from favorite authors, and working hard). Software, classic…