Marie Clay's body of work has influenced classroom instruction in direct and indirect ways, through large overarching themes in our pedagogical content knowledge as well as specific smart practices. This paper focuses on her the contributions to our thinking about instruction which come from two broad theoretical concepts; emergent literacy…

Analyzes a case of a struggling student writer who was not helped by good classroom techniques. Proposes that for educators to help struggling writers, they need to focus on both the student and the activity system within which the student works. Concludes that educators need to take account of: teachers' and children's ideas; organization for…