In Malawi, education is not always a top priority. Although there has been free primary education since 1994, attendance in school is not compulsory (Ngozo, 2010). Even when children do go to school, schools can be overcrowded with few books for students to use. Classrooms can hold over 100 children with whole groups of children sharing one…

Drawing on four years of anecdotal data and student feedback on course evaluations, this paper provides a retrospective account of the author's experience with teacher candidates in an elementary writing instruction course as first-time authors of children's books, in particular focusing on a writing workshop approach as an effective pedagogical…

In attempting to align all that we do as English teachers with current standards, expectations, standardized tests, and other educational stressors, we have overlooked one crucial element: developing our students as writers, not just because it is beneficial, but because it is good for their souls, their confidence, and their overall evaluation of…

Although researchers have studied parental involvement and reading achievement, few have examined the effects of parental involvement on young children's developmental writing. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between parent involvement in a writing workshop and the writing development of kindergarten students in an…

This article details a project with students who are refugees who read and wrote about the refugee experience to give the instructor important information about their lives. The high school students first read various texts about the refugee experience that guided their class discussions, journal writing, and graphic illustrations of their…

The Family Literacy Initiative (FLI) is a project that began as a few workshops offered to parents of elementary students who wanted to know what they could do in the summer to keep their kids writing. Since that time the FLI has grown tremendously: in the past five years, the authors have offered 130 workshops, reaching more than 2,750 adults and…

Faculty members are critical assets to universities, and large losses to institutions occur if they are not successful. Although institutions value publications and grants in the tenure process, newer professors receive little guidance in writing for these endeavors. Faculty writing retreats help apprentice professors in the craft of writing;…

Early literacy skill development is critical during the preschool years. Under that umbrella is emergent writing, a small but important component of overall literacy development. This article presents two writing strategies: (1) writers' workshop and (2) dictation within the context of storybook reading that preschool teachers can utilize to…

Utilizing a formative experiment, this study investigated how a nonfiction-focused writing workshop could be implemented to improve students' reading and writing. Eighteen students from a fourth grade class at a rural school in a large southeastern school district participated in the study. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected prior to…

This program profile describes the efforts needed to develop a new writing program at a small college. The author explores how she cultivated relations with disciplinary faculty to collaboratively redefine a "problem" into an opportunity by adopting Krista Ratcliffe's technique of rhetorical listening. She then outlines the…

As the program director of a community writing center that serves children and youth ages 5-18, Rachel Loeper sees it all, from 15-year-old spoken word poets to six-year-olds whose first "books" are strung together with yarn. In all of her roles--administrator, teacher, volunteer trainer--she values engaging the most reluctant of young…

A workshop with virtual consultation practice-based professional development model for self-regulated strategy development persuasive writing instruction was evaluated in a randomized controlled trial. Nineteen general education teachers and 564 Grade 5 and 6 students in 16 low-wealth rural schools participated. Following training, teachers…

This study explored how using graphic novel features in the writing process influenced the motivation and engagement of fifth grade boys to write. Participants used graphica features to visually draft their narrative essays before crafting their final writing piece. During the drafting process, students were encouraged to engage in the revision…

Peer review was used as a primary pedagogical tool in a scholarly writing course for social work doctoral students. To gauge student response to peer review and learning as a result of peer review, the instructor used narrative analysis to organize student comments into themes. Themes identified included initial trepidation, "no pain, no…

Although it is evident that advocacy for strong school and family relationships exists, many teachers and schools struggle to find ways to engage families in their classrooms. At the same time, research on families from diverse cultural and linguistic groups points to differences in perceptions of what it means to be involved, support children's…