Describes an experiment indicating that having students write expressively on a regular basis could significantly improve their reading comprehension and enhance their attitudes toward themselves and toward reading and learning. Discusses implications of these results for the classroom and curriculum. (HTH)

Examines progressively more competent writing samples from a third grader's journal to illustrate the possibilities for using journals "across the curriculum." (HTH)

Discusses learning how to compose a film as one way children can learn the valuable lesson of how to give form to ideas and shape to thought. Presents the stages of composing a film and a sequence of filmmaking activities for introduction at progressive grade levels. (HTH)

Discusses a theoretical framework that draws together previous research on the role of the educator in children's learning. Urges teachers to create classroom "communities" in which children have some control over their learning environment and interact with teachers and peers to carry out legitimate personal and social tasks. (HTH)

Explores ERIC materials on various theories of language development and their implications for vocabulary development in classroom settings. Provides suggestions for enriching the school language environment to promote vocabulary growth. (HTH)

Argues that social interaction with peers is a necessary part of children's internal structuring of spelling. Describes briefly two classroom experiments in which children responded to each other's invented spellings. (HTH)

Describes three dimensions of reading as a social process: (1) all reading events involve a social context, (2) reading is a cultural activity, and (3) reading is a socio-cognitive process. Discusses the implications for classroom reading of these dimensions. (HTH)

Observes that changes in the pattern of social interactions in classrooms as a result of computers may be even more significant than any simple technological effect. Illustrates the point with an example of sixth-grade writing on the QUILL software system, and the student's increased peer interaction and audience awareness. (HTH)

Illustrates how school writing environments that encourage talk between peers can help children learn about writing and the writing process. Describes recurring patterns of language behavior at a kindergarten writing table and shows how children's natural conversations are often reminiscent of adult-child interaction in the home. (HTH)

Describes a study of turn-taking behavior in two kindergarten classes. Results indicated that when children were left on their own, they cooperated with turn-taking, whereas, when the teacher was present, he or she tended to dominate the turn-taking. (HTH)

Discusses what a spontaneously formed group of three children thought and did as they composed a story together. The observations focus on the whole writing process. (HTH)

Decries teachers' use of questions with the phrase "tell me," arguing that this locus of authority in the classroom interferes with children's understanding of the function of language. (HTH)

Describes the positive effects of peer interaction during the writing process. Illustrates by describing integration of this method in a seventh-grade classroom and how it improved the students' writing quality and attitudes. (HTH)

Explores children's spoken narratives and the quality and purpose of Sharing Time in the classroom. Considers the quality and effects of teacher responses to students' talk. (HTH)

Describes a two-day residence in a fifth- and sixth-grade classroom of poet Arnold Adoff. Presents his interaction with five students as they struggle with their poetry writing. (HTH)