This book sheds prescriptive teaching for listening to children. It is the work of an experienced, practicing teacher with a sound interpretation of first-grade children, giving insight and examples of children and a teacher learning together. This second edition incorporates stories from the author/educator and learning from her new experiences in teaching. It also expands sections on creative writing, phonics instruction, read-alouds, and documenting assessment, and includes an updated bibliography. At the same time, it retains its focus on these major areas, addressed in depth: the writing process--structuring daily writing workshops and the development of young writers; the reading process--structuring daily reading workshops and learning to read without a basal reader; children's literature--incorporating children's literature into the daily life of the classroom and stimulating children's responses to literature; classroom environment and tone--organizing and managing the classroom; expanding literacy--reading and writing across the curriculum and a focus on kindergarten; and assessment--documenting and reporting student progress. Contains the following appendixes: Conference Checklist; Publishing Conference Record; Directions for Bookbinding; Reading Conference Notes (Whole Class); Reading Record (Individual); Strategies and Skills of Written Language; and Children's Books: Child-Tested Favorites. (Cites 89 works and 98 children's books.) (NKA)