Writing In The Elementary Classroom

Examines the theoretical underpinnings of how students learn to write from reading other writers; describes various kinds of inquiry designed to help teachers and students learn how to learn from writers; and includes thoughts from the author on writing and teaching, as well as a selection of resource materials.

Writing in the Elementary Classroom considers writing development from many different angles, creating a rich collage that focuses on how to help students develop into competent writers.

This book illustrates how teachers of elementary-age writers bring their beliefs about teaching and learning to life--through the visions they hold for writers, writing, and the world, as well as through the decisions they make every day in their classrooms. Teachers today face contextual challenges and pressures that may conflict with their visions of effective teaching. Katie Van Sluys demonstrates how to (re)claim our professional practice to ensure that young people have the opportunity to become competent, constantly growing writers who use writing to think, communicate, and pose as well as solve problems. Using NCTE's Beliefs about the Teaching of Writing as a starting point for understandings about writing research and what it can tell us about effective writing practices in elementary classrooms, Van Sluys invites us to articulate our own beliefs as we explore why and what we write, how we write and how we teach, how we assess progress, and how we advocate for the practices we believe in. Through real classroom examples and teacher and student reflections, she helps us understand how the decisions that both we and our students make today can help them not only learn to write well but also to use writing to create the world they want to live in.

Becoming a Teacher of Writing in Elementary Classrooms nurtures teachers’ identities as writers, connects to the realities of writing instruction in real and diverse classrooms, and encourages critical and creative thinking. This text is about writing instruction as a journey teachers and students embark on together. The focus is on learning how to teach writing through specific teaching and learning structures found in the Writing Studio: mini-lessons; teacher and peer conferencing; guided writing; and sharing, celebrating, and broadcasting writing. Pedagogical features include teaching structures and strategies, "Problematizing Practice" classroom scenarios, assessment resources, and a Companion Website. Because a teacher who views him or herself as a writer is best positioned to implement the Writing Studio, a parallel text, Becoming-writer, give readers space to consider who they are as a writer, their personal process as a writer, and who they might become as a writer.

"The Handbook of Reading Research is the research handbook for the field. Each volume has come to define the field for the period of time it covers ... When taken as a set, the four volumes provide a definitive history of reading research"--Back of cover, volume 4.

Writing Workshop in the Elementary Classroom is a culmination of the authors’ work with students and writing for collectively over 35 years. Teaching writing using a workshop methodology can be exciting as it is an interactive approach to writing, but it can also be challenging as it is not the traditional teacher directed whole class lessons that many test preparation curriculums tout. The book takes the reader through the stages of the writing process in the first part, explaining what students are doing and thinking in each stage. In the second part, the authors explain how to manage students, materials, mini lessons, grading and other aspects that help writing workshop classrooms run smoothly. To help with the transition to a workshop method, readers are asked to keep a journal wherein they plan what they will do in their classrooms.

This text models for teachers how to help children learn and write by establishing comfort with writing, building confidence, and developing competence. Several themes run through the learning-to-write-process presented in this text: * Writing is communication; * Writing is a powerful tool for learning; * How children feel about their writing and themselves as writers affects how they learn to write; * Teachers are coworkers with students; children from many backgrounds can learn to write together. The text sythesizes what we know about how children learn, how we write, and what we write into a process of teaching children to write. It is intended to serve as a starting place for developing theories of how to best teach writing.

Shows teachers how to meet the challenges of teaching literacy in today's classroom This book provides educators with the historical and theoretical foundations necessary for becoming a reading, writing, and literacy teacher and helps them understand the broader, more complete picture of the reading process and what it means to be a teacher of readers. It covers the major theories and application strategies of the reading process, and teaches how to organize for literary instruction in a classroom. As educators learn to recognize and draw upon the multiple literacies that children bring to the classroom, they will: become skilled problem-solvers as they work through real-world examples and study the classroom experiences of others; discover how to dig deeper into literacy instruction and decide on what actions to take; and explore ways to drive and teach literacy with such tools as children's toys and familiar characters.