Demonstrating to teachers how to experience the joys of the craft along with their students, this book examines portfolios, record keeping, and methods for teaching conventions, spelling, and literary genres including fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. Each chapter includes a varying number of "Actions," glossed objectives providing new ways for teachers to understand themselves and reach their students. Chapters in the book are: (1) Consider Your Roots; (2) Learn from the Children; (3) Why Would Anyone Ever Want to Write?; (4) Day One: Help Children to Write and Keep Writing; (5) Understand Children When They Write; (6) Expect More of Your Writers; (7) Conditions for Effective Writing; (8) Begin to Organize Your Classroom; (9) Help Children to Share Their Writing; (10) Evaluate Your Own Classroom; (11) Experiment with Portfolios; (12) Help Children Learn Conventions; (13) Help Children to Read Their Own Work; (14) Help Children to Revise Their Work; (15) How to Keep Handwriting in Perspective; (16) Spell to Communicate; (17) Answers to Frequent Questions Teachers Ask about Teaching Writing; (18) Help Children Read and Write Fiction; (19) Show Children How to Write Nonfiction; (20) Uncover the World through Poetry; (21) Work with Parents and Administrators; and (22) Live the Professional Life. Contains an index and references. (RS)