This study examines two experienced teachers' transformations and sense of agency as they implemented a writer's workshop curriculum with multi-lingual third grade students. Multiple lines of inquiry guide the study including "communities of practice" (Lave & Wenger, 1991), "teacher identities in figured worlds" (Holland, Lachicotte, Skinner, &…

When asked to discuss their middle school language arts classes, talented eighth graders identified concerns and made suggestions for their teachers. Students voiced desire for choices in selecting reading materials, writing topics and genre. They preferred having extended periods of time to engage in reading and writing activities, rather than…

A six-week long intervention that introduced second graders to poetry writing is described in this article, ending in a classroom "poetry cafe" culminating event. This article details the established classroom "writing workshop" structure and environment and the perceptions and observations of how students responded to the instruction. Four poetry…

Describes how the author worked to create a writing program that was more aligned with her philosophy of education. Notes how she worked hard to give students choice in their activities so as to provide them with the chance to take ownership in a few areas of their learning. Focuses on what other researchers and educators had to say about writing…

This book has an easy-to-follow-format. It supports teachers through six workshops by sharing specific strategies, procedures, and materials that worked best for students and teachers in classroom writing workshops. The book discusses the routines that helped organize and support a workshop; and presents strategies for anecdotal record-keeping,…

Describes how an elementary teacher developed a daily writer's workshop. Suggestions for finding time to write include reducing use of workbooks and skillsheets, looking for redundancy in curriculum programs, concentrating on writing for a shortened period of the school year, and creating time-saving instructional strategies. (SM)

Notes how students learn to examine multiple elements of a text with critical perspective making analogies between others' writing and their own. Concludes that students may only have one opportunity to workshop their writing, but that intense learning experience, coupled with critical responses to another 20 or so drafts, coaxes writers into…

Based on a series of successful summer writing institutes, this book presents practical ways for teachers to reinvigorate their classrooms and their own attitudes toward creative writing. In four complementary sections focusing on four groups of writers--creative writers in residence, K-12 students and teachers who participated in the summer…

Explains how the author teaches her first graders to write and the steps that go into her writing program. Suggests that whatever children can talk about, they can write about, and whatever they can write about, they can read about. Organizes her literacy program according to this. Presents eight oral language activities that are adapted from…

Presents an example illustrating how teachers can create reading and writing activities that emphasize how words work through grammar, punctuation, mechanics, and usage. Describes a workshop that highlights a single punctuation mark: the semicolon. Notes that the semicolon defies rigid rules for use and is therefore ideally suited for instruction…

Bringing together information elementary school teachers need to make balanced literacy instruction a reality, this book presents more than 90 short articles designed to be read in a brief period of time and suitable for use in after-school workshops. It presents ideas and instructional approaches teachers have found most valuable and effective in…

Noting that the emphasis in writing instruction over the past 40 years has shifted from product to process, this digest focuses on the experience of individual teachers as they searched for ways to put the principles of process writing into practice in the classroom. The first section discusses writer's workshops, noting that teachers have found…

Designed to help teachers empower students to become thinkers, writers, and especially authors, this book helps teachers develop a writer's mindset in grades 2-6 students. It supports and guides teachers from the week before school through the spring Young Author's Conference that recognizes writing achievement. Chapters in the book are: (1) Kids…

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…

Presents a conversation with Linda Rief, a middle school language-arts teacher, concerning writing workshops in the classroom. (RS)