Annotated Bibliography--Group E

Set 1
 * Bomer and Lamon, "Positioning in a Primary Writing Workshop: Joint Action in the Discursive Production of Writing Subjects."

Reviewed by: Kim Swygert

Research in the Teaching of English, Volume 38, Number 4, May 2004, pp. 420-466. Key Ideas: Children ascribe “positions” to each other while in their writing groups. They talk out loud as they write, which facilitates their writing development.

Research techniques used by authors: Participant observation of a first/second grade classroom about once a week for a couple hours at a time. Field notes were taken and immediately typed upon leaving the classroom. Video tapes were also used. Six children were observed and the main focus of the article was on two children in particular.

My response/summary of article: Bomer and Laman discovered that students assigned positions to one another while working in groups. Students are kind of invisibly doing this without assistance from the teacher--it is occurring naturally. Student interaction and conversations were examined in a “primary-grade” class during a writing workshop. Bomer and Laman believe these types of conversations and “utterances” aid in the development of writing. In the early years of writing, children speak out loud as they write in order to form their writing scheme. Students all hear each other talk and internalize.

Bomer and Laman observed that students would toy with language, read their papers from the beginning as a prompt for what to write next. They understood this talk as “wholly rational goals in writing” (424). Even though a student may be speaking out loud or rereading their writing, other students are absorbing this and learning. Not only is this talking helping to facilitate writing, but it’s helping to develop social skills. By speaking out loud, students put themselves in a position to be corrected by or given advice from other students. When this happens, children “ascribe” positions to each other, and these positions “stick” (429). Based on students’ skills/knowledge during their talking, positions in the group are being assigned.

This study took place in a school located in a “small city of the U.S., where the population was generally working class to middle class” (431). Almost half of the school’s student population was eligible for free/reduced lunch. The majority of students were white. Bomer and Laman chose this school because of the diverse social class, and to “examine positioning as it played out among children who tend to be socially more vulnerable” (431).

The classes in this school are grouped by “multi age” rather and individual grade level. Most classes are spread over 2 years. This study took place in a first/second grade class. The principal and teacher advocate this type of classroom environment because “children do not develop in lockstep with age-grade curricula…groupings should be less bounded and more fluid, as in the world outside of school” (432). This school also advocates full inclusion, meaning that even students with severe disabilities were in general education classes the entire day. This is done to promote fairness. The teacher in this classroom is considered an expert in writing.

The class has a writing workshop at the same time every day. Students are able to choose their writing topics. Students have a conference and share time about their writing daily. The teacher introduced students to journal writing, or “writer’s notebooks” halfway through the year. The teacher told students to use their journals as “a place to work out whatever’s in your mind or going on in the world around you" (433).

The teacher of this class strives to create a positive climate promote a sense of community in the classroom. This is evident in the types of activities she chooses that engage students in conversations such as creating a better world and being a good friend.

During writing workshop, students chose their own group members and/or writing partners. The teacher didn’t comment on students’ choices of groups. The chosen members were those who students usually didn’t choose to play with at recess. Bomer and Laman noted that children talked as they wrote. Children would often “say something, pause to write, and then the other child would answer” (436).

The study focused on Romy, a first-grader, and Jessamyn, a second-grader. Both students were in the “Reading Recovery” program and struggling with acquiring literacy. Romy felt that nobody paid attention to her in school. Though Romy didn’t seek attention as much as other students and contribute much to writing workshop, she did leave the teacher frequent notes. Jessamyn has struggled with socialization and learning, but is making improvements.

During writing workshop. Romy and Jessamyn were enaging in conversation as they wrote. Romy had asked Jessamyn for spelling help, and Jessamyn ignored her. Jessamyn also ignored Romy’s requests to read her work. Bomer and Laman stated that Jessamyn assumed the position of “serious and diligent adult and therefore positioning Romy as the annoying, pestering child” (442). Many more episodes similar to this go on between Romy and Jessamyn, where Romy sees Jessamyn as a more knowledgeable and experienced student. Both students talk to each other as they write, with Jessamyn clearly realizing her position over Romy.

The context in which the students interact with each other do not solely stem from being in the classroom. Often children bring in comments that they hear from adult family members, such as older siblings and parents. These different experiences and environment aid in the development cognitive learning while in a social context.

We probably all have had similar experiences to Romy and Jessamyn in the early primary grades. I see these positions go on in the class I work in now. Students ask the “more knowledgeable” students for help on assignments. It’s only natural to ask a person who you think is smarter than yourself. We learn from those more knowledgeable than us. I can relate most of the concepts in this article to Brandt’s Sponsors of Literacy article.

These social experiences that occur early in life aid in the development of writing. Students have “sponsors” (Brandt) who are more knowledgeable than themselves that aid in their writing development. Children rely on these sponsors when learning how to write. Gee’s article also related the use of video games as an aid to developing life skills. Likewise, this article focuses on social skills that children are developing now that they will use throughout their lives. Bomer and Laman feel that while children are learning to write and engaging with other students, they are also building life skills, such as “negotiating power, privilege, and closeness with the others around them” (420).

Whether it is constructive criticism or friendly advice, socialization facilitates the writing process.


 * Bintz and Dillard, "Seeing Writing Instruction Differently: Lessons with Lasting Impressions."

Reviewed By: Kim Swygert

Language Arts, Vol. 82, No. 2, November 2004

Key Ideas: Dillard implemented three types of social practices used in teaching writing.

In the first practice, Dillard posted picture on wall. She asked students what words come to mind when looking at picture. When the students responded, Dillard asked students to help her spell the words as she wrote them under the picture. She used these words to form a “word bank.” Once the word bank was complete, Dillard asked the group to write a story about the picture.

In the second practice, Dillard had students write about their own personal experiences. She had students write about an upcoming school event that involved a class party with “Shakespeare” coming to visit, and how the students were preparing for it.

In the final practice, Dillard continued to teach students in the ongoing practice of writing. She adapted and implemented teaching strategies by author and speaker Donald Graves. She had genuine, meaningful conversations with her students to get them to open up and facilitate thinking. After the discussion, she had students choose an idea and write about it for five minutes.

According to Bintz and Dillard, “Different kinds of social practices send different kinds of messages to students about what it means to be literate and what it means to write” (115).

Casey's (one of Dillard’s students) writing varied with each of these practices. When the teacher used the word bank in the first practice, she noticed Casey’s spelling was correct and that the paper “looked” neat. However, the paper lacked criteria that Dillard needed. Likewise, in the second practice Casey's writing was more of a sentence than a story, and therefore lacked depth. In the third practice, Casey actually wrote a story that was authentic and structured. With this practice, Casey demonstrated all of Dillard’s criteria for writing, such as voice, ownership, potential for revision, authenticity, and active engagement.

According to Donald Graves (1995), “Children rarely view themselves in stories they are asked to read in school.” This can lead to problems with reading comprehension. If students can’t imagine themselves in a particular setting, then writing about it would seem foreign to them.

Research Techniques: Direct observation/teaching.

My response:

When Dillard chose topics for her students to write about, she noticed that students had low levels of engagement. She found the practice of letting students choosing their own topics to be most effective.

After reading this article, it seems that the most effective practice in teaching writing is to talk with students about what’s going on in their lives. It’s easier for students to write about a topic that they have experienced or are interested in. I’ve mentioned the importance of the necessity of having interest in a topic in a previous assignment for this class (regarding my own personal experiences in struggling with writing). As an adult I still have trouble writing about a topic I’m not familiar with. I could only imagine how much harder this must be for a young child just learning how to write. I see that when a teacher opens up and shares personal stories with students, the students in return open up to the teacher. Even though it may seem like a casual conversation to a student, their thinking caps are on and they are focused on a particular topic. If they are immediately given five minutes to write about an idea they are already have a good handle on, the writing process would flow much more smoothly. --Kim Swygert


 * Blake, "Fruit of the Devil: Writing and English Language Learners."

Reviewed by: Kim Swygert

Language Arts, Volume 78, No.5, May 2001, pp. 435-441.

Key Ideas:

In this article, migrant students participated in a summer writing camp. Blake took part in this summer school writing program and observed ELL students using writing as a way of practicing “local literacy.”

This article differentiates between “schooled literacy” and “local literacy.” Schooled literacy is thought of as a stereotypical, white, middle class way of acquiring literacy. In schooled literacy, it is believed that we acquire some of our social practices through a good education. Local literacy, however, goes far beyond the classroom. This type of literacy is acquired in everyday life. Culture plays a large role in local literacy.

Blake broke the students up into "peer conference groups" prior to writing to discuss possible topics. Blake found that students revealed personal, detailed information about their lives, which turned into valuable topics that they wrote about.

According to Blake, students used the writing process (brainstorming, peer conference, drafting, etc.) while exercising their local literacies--their unique life stories. These local literacies were writing enrichment tools.

Research techniques: Participant observation in a migrant summer writing camp.

My response: The more students talked, the more they wrote. The peer conferences were crucial to the writing process because it allowed students to open up to one another. As a teacher, I need to remember that there will be students of many cultural backgrounds in my classroom, and not all of them will value "schooled literacy" as much as their "local literacy." Having personal conversations with my students, showing genuine concern, and allowing for peer conference before writing are all steps I can take to make the writing process easier for students.

--Kim Swygert


 * Burns, "Being "Social": Expanding Our View of Social Interaction in Writing Workshops."
 * Add your annotation here

Set 1 Reviewed by Rachel Nault
 * Bomer and Lamon "Positioning in a primary writing workshop: Joint action in the discursive production of writing subjects"

Key ideas:Children are engaged in the life work of negotiating power, privledge and closness with others. Observation of the naturalisitc classroom is the only way that achievement-in-process can become visible. The purpose of writing in a classroom is to develop theory about the complex interactions that contribute to the ways young children begin to form themselves and one another as perticular writers. Identity is a part of writing and learning, and genres become ways of helping learn. Throughout writing, children are socially volnerable and visible to others. Positions, both physically and socially are needed because they arrange relations. Story line positioning must be recognized as non-real life events. "We are in this story line that carries a particular type of relationship". People cannot act in a way that is brand new for them, they cannot employ subject matter that is brand new because different positions are available in different environments.

These key ideas are very important when thinking about how one will set up their classroom, not only physically but socially. It is necessary to remember that children have many outside influences and sponsors who will effect their thinking. Writing is not only a time to learn about putting sentences into meaningfull paragraphs, but more to help them with thier identity and who they are or want to be as a person in life. Everyone is different and writing is an obviouse way to see that. Social roles are always presented in writing and students also gain the skills needed to see, through their own writing, to see that the roles they are reading aloud or acting out are not their real life social roles. There are social roles however that do exist within the classroom. Not only is the teacher a sponsor, but other children who seem to understand a concept better than others can aid those who are having difficulty. The classroom can become an environment where students don't have to feel inhibited by social roles they feel they play. Through writing they can express themselves or anything in any way they see fit. Add your annotation here Add your annotation here Add your annotation here Set 1 Language Arts, volume 78, number 5 May 2001 Reviewed by Rachel Nault
 * Bintz and Dillard, "Seeing Writing Instruction Differently: Lessons with Lasting Impressions."
 * Blake, "Fruit of the Devil: Writing and English Language Learners."
 * Burns, "Being "Social": Expanding Our View of Social Interaction in Writing Workshops."
 * Blake, "Fruit of te Devil:Writing and English Language learners"

This article talks about the difficulty and hate that many children have towards reading, and what teachers can do to help re-establish the importance of writing skills, while at the same time making it enjoyable to students. Key points: Teachers, parents and administrators often do not stress the importance of writing as much as math or other subjects, and inorder re-invigorate students about writing, teachers need to remind themselves about the importance of writing tools. Often times school literature is only acceptable if it reflects the middle class, white culture and the many other styles and genres of writing are over looked. Writing should effectively engage students in good social practices. The school programs that were given during the summer taught the students that literacy goes beyond the classroom. Most of all, by giving students opportunities to use process writing as a way to talk and write about their lives and experiences, will solve two problems. The students will learn how to express themsleves, and by studnents connecting what they read to their own lives and writing, state standards are satisfied. The techniques used were observation. Discussion: This article gave several great examples of students using socializing to write. So many times in classrooms, students are given a subject to write on and maybe they learn how to put a topic sentence with it, but they rarely talk to eachother and get ideas from eachother, they just aren't social about it. Sitting and writing silently isn't going to hold anyone's attention for very long, and if learning how to use a topic sentence and where to put it and so forth is difficult to a student, they are not going to want to do it, nor will they see the value in it. By allowing students to be more free with their writing and show them how talking with people and being social can be a helpful and fun part of writing and expressing yourself.

-Rachel Nault
 * Burns Being "Social":Expanding our view of social interaction in writing workshops

Language Arts volume 78, number 5, May 2001

Reviewed by Rachel Nault This article disusses children being social in their writing experience. This study was done by observation and interviewes in a summer writing workshop. Key points: There must e different ways of socializing during the writing process because different children socialze in differnt ways, and forcing them to all act in one particular manner will turn the off to writing. Children's development of their control over their written language is not dependant only upon interaction with the media but with also upon interaction with eachother and others. Student discussion regarding choice of genre and chooice of topic are highlighted as key elements in discussions of successful workshops. "We may give students choices in topic but if we limit their available composing processes we may restrict student's control of their writing." A girl Nicole, participating in the workshop was able to use her friend's advice on her story, which was reflected in her story. Talking to friends about their other friend's stories will help them become social. As children make choices they determine which form of being social is right for them. These two articles are connected in that they both attempt to find ways of helping children to see the value in writing, beyond doing it in the classroom. This summer program seemed to help all of these students to beccome better writers, while enjoying themselves becasue they are able to write about things they want to write about and aren't pressured through day after day of the process in putting a paragraph together. However, they are not left out in the cold when it comes to getting help. Children like to talk and by talking to eachother and focusing their conversations on their writing, they will be able to enjoy their writing experience.

Language Arts, vol82 no.2 November, 2004 Reviewed by Rachel Nault
 * William P. Blitz and Jill Dillard, "Seeing writing instruction differently:Lessons with lasting impressions

Key ideas: The ideas of this article come from a teacher named Jill who was having trouble getting her students to enjoy writing and want to do it. Four views of literature are given by Luke and Freebody which are; 1. Phonics which is the process of actually being able to decode the words, 2. Skills-based which is being able to pull meaning from the words that have been decoded, 3. Pragmatic practices which is relating text to the real world, and 4. Critical practices which is being able to look at a text with a critical eye. Jill attends a demonstration of Graves' in which he talks about what kids care about and how to tap into that to help them learn to write. Originally Jill wanted to teach the students how to read through writing, but after learing some ideas from Graves, she realized that writing is a social process and it must important to the students, it must mean something to them. Focusing on all the gramatical errors and hand writing mistakes does not allow the teacher to see what the student is trying to tell. By talking with her students about their work and her's, she was able to get a clearer sence of what they would be willing to communicate through their writing. In the end, the questions that Jill was asking were things like "what stratigies can/should I use to help teach them how to write?", and "how do I help students chose meaningful topics?"

Jill is constantly reflecting upon her experiences and learning from them. It seems that reflection is a very important part of teaching, and yet it seems like it comes naturally as well for a dedicated teacher. Jill is there, as the rest of us are, to figure out the best ways to teach with our students, not to them. Jill found that writing stories with her students and then sharing them, and asking questions to the students about her own writings would encourage them to participate as well. I feel like I got a lot out of this article because it made me think outside the box, think about my own experiences of writing and when and why I had difficulties and didn't want to do it. What was it that I didn't want to do? And will my students not want to do it either. I know that writing is important for many differnet reasons, but if it is not important to them and they don't see the connection either to self or world, or they don't see reason, they won't want to do it. Just as Burns' "Being Social", this article depicts the importance and value of social interaction when it comes to reading and writing. Creating a book club or writing club in which students are free to ask questions and color outside the box, and discuss the meaning of their piece, is certainly something I wish I had had in school, and is certainly something I am going to impliment when I teach.

--Rachel Nault

Set 2
 * Dyson, "On Reframing Children’s Words: The Perils, Promises, and Pleasures of Writing Children."

Reviewed by Jamie Engen Anne Haas Dyson from the University of California at Berkeley evaluates and researches the teaching of writing to children. Dyson's article entitled "On Reframing Children’s Words: The Perils, Promises, and Pleasures of Writing Children," was written in February of 2000. Within this reading I have established that Dyson's main objective is to inform the readers of outside surroundings and influences impacted on students from television, media, movies, and music. Another interesting factor that Dyson presents in this article that is the influence a child's encounters depends upon that students families financial state. This ideology/fact is something that Dyson believes is essential for teachers to understand if they want their students to be successful in school and life. It is so important for the teachers to understand what Dyson has put forth because it is a enormous part of how students react to their peers, through play as well as emotions. Dyson then goes on to study the children in their own environments while she does research to learn more about the children’s individual and group experiences so that she can use this data within her field work.

This article is very well connected with another article we have read in class, "Why are Video Games Good for Learning." These articles are correlated because of the issue of outside technology. Part of society feels that advancements such as video games and computers are good for children because they put them in their natural environment, yet some disagree. With Gee and Dyson we can take a little of both to make something great, give children some outside media influence but make sure that they are all given an equal opportunity to play or learn with the same tool. This way financial instability within the family will have a smaller impact on the children's schooling. This article is very easy to value and learn from, because of all the research that Dyson has shared with us in the article. Although, she is excellent writer and has abstract more in-depth reasoning for her arguments, some of her arguments are agreeable for everyone. Dyson believes that students cannot give up and have to try hard to become the best they can at any skill, and I think that this theory is one that all can relate to and preach to their students in the future.


 * Dressel, "About Writing: A Letter to Stacie."
 * Reviewed by Jamie Engen

"About Writing: A Letter to Stacie." by Janice Hartwick Dressel, a professor of English Education and Children's Literature in the Department of English Language and Literature at Central Michigan University. The article is from "Language Arts", Vol. 82 No. 2, November 2004, pages 95-99.

To start off this article is about the author, Dressel, writing a letter through the thoughts of a Grandma to her granddaughter at only 18 months old. The letter is about what the grandmother wishes her granddaughter's future will be even though she is thinking of her grand daughter at such a young age. The grandmother writes about how her granddaughter, Stacie loves so much about literature and writing already, loves to read, color, and engage herself in activities of that sort even at a young age.

The grandmother also believes that the teaching of writing in today’s society needs work. There is not much evidence to support this theory, however the way that she implies that it does makes it seem somewhat believable.

The thing that I enjoyed most about this article was that it felt very relatable. It was very reassuring to read something that a 'grandmother' is writing to her 'granddaughter.' I suppose it was the context that made the reading seem comfortable and believable. I enjoyed it for the most part because of the family related context.


 * Graves, "What I’ve Learned from Teachers of Writing."
 * Reviewed by Jamie Engen

"What I've Learned from Teachers of Writing." by Donald Graves, a retired Professor from the University of New Hampshire. An article from the journal "Language Arts," vol. 82 No. 2, November 2004 pgs. 88 - 94.

This article is basically about the changes of writing. The changes primarily that have taken place within the last 20 years. However, Graves also believes that some ideas about writing have not changed. Grave's has very strong thoughts on what he believes a good teacher is as well as what a great teacher teaches.

The article by Grave's was a little confusing, but I enjoyed it very much. There are a lot of things that future teachers can relate to it and learn from while reading this article. The issues Grave's presents are believable and very helpful in learning about the education I hope to give my students. Graves also helped me to think of writing in a little bit different light, I think that everyone should read this article!


 * Heffernan and Lewison, "Social Narrative Writing: (Re)Constructing Kid Culture in the Writer’s Workshop."
 * Heffernan and Lewison, "Social Narrative Writing: (Re)Constructing Kid Culture in the Writer’s Workshop."

Reviewed by Jamie Engen

This article was written by Lee Heffernan and Mitzi Lewison in July of 2003, Volume 80, pages 435-443. Something that is different from this article than the others I have read, is the introduction of social narratives and more in-depth with that type of narrative rather than literacy narratives. This article introduced a new few things that I am not used to reading about, such as the social narratives and such, however, this article was very hard to read, except for the great story in the beginning.

The goal of the article seemed to be getting the classroom of students to write about social narratives, and things that they have experienced, even at their young age. From the information the authors share with the readers it seems that the students enjoy it and that they do a lot of things to prepare themselves for writing. An example that I especially enjoyed was the ‘picture book project.’ Tables and figure boxes were shown to ensure the reader that they get the best understanding and I feel that I benefited from their ideas and examples a lot.

Because this article was somewhat difficult to follow and comprehend it was hard for me to fully enjoy and understand what was going on. The objective that the teachers had for the students was clear but I did find myself very confused as to who was conducting the goals at times. I look forward to what other groups have to say because then maybe I can relate to something that got out of this reading.

Set 3
 * Kress, "Genre and the Changing Contexts for English Language Arts."


 * Kress, Gunther. Genre and the Changing Contexts for English Language Arts. Language Arts, Vol 76, No. 6, 1999.

Reviewed by Jan Williams

Main Ideas from the article:
 * English language arts in Britain are being threatened because they are not evolving the way society is.
 * "Language arts needs to focus on developing in students a full awareness of how to achieve their goals in their contexts."
 * Genre is only a theory since not everyone would put the same things in the same categories.
 * “High” forms of literature (sonnet, epic, novels by accepted authors, tragedy) that are usually taught may not succeed in reaching all students.
 * “Low” forms of literature (or “popular”) might have some redeeming value.
 * Perhaps educators should allow students to write in these “lower” forms.

Kress’s research technique seems to be just reading things belonging to different genre categories and what others have to say on the subject. I think. He also bought a leather purse and spends quite a bit of time talking about the description cards that came with it.

My response: Frankly, I found this article virtually unintelligible. This is only a guess at to what this guy was getting at. I originally assumed that there was some new “theory” surrounding the use of different genre in the classroom to teach writing, but it was more that the “theory” is the idea of genre at all: that different works of literature fall into different genre categories. In other words (and other words are needed for this entire navel-gazing article), one man’s science fiction is another’s political satire. There is much debate as to whether genre exists at all, apparently, which is disheartening considering all the other problems in our world.

Basically, from what I could gather, the British “intelligentsia” believe that only “high” forms of literature should be taught in schools, say, Shakespeare, Homer, Orwell, Woolf and friends, and that “low” or “popular” forms should be avoided. Thus, writing exercises should be along the lines of the “high” literature. Because this has not worked they are considering the idea that other forms should be “allowed”. This apparently causes vast audiences of British intelligentsia to swoon uncontrollably overcome by the vapors, ala Scarlett O’Hara, causing a run to the local drugstore for smelling salts and fans and the drugstore people are really, really upset. (Can you imagine their reaction if they knew I was already stocked up on Harry Potter, Calvin and Hobbes, and Captain Underpants for my classroom?)

Apparently the “lower” forms of literature lack creativity since they fall into a prescribed, predictable scheme with little room for (their idea of) creativity. While I have never read any, I assume something like romance novels would be a good example. The “shocking” part of this article, from what I could gather, is that perhaps teachers should consider allowing students to write in this manner.

I actually think this is brilliant! Students have such a hard time without specific rubrics and giving them strict guidelines, at least initially, in how they will write something would be a great boost. It reminds me of the story of the elementary school that took its fence down because the chain link fence gave the students the impression (or so the school board thought) that the students were imprisoned. The students used to hang on the fence and play close to it. Once it was down, the students did not know where the boundaries were, and simply huddled in the middle of the field. The fence went back up.

For instance, the instructions could be to write an adventure story. It could be about pirates (my favorite), or outer space, marooned on an island, or something else the students suggest. It must have a problem, a hero or heroine or both, and a resolution. Sample problems can also be suggested. Then let them go and see what happens. No two stories will be alike.

This guy was an Aussie in Britain. He admits to not having a clue as to what schools in the U.S. were doing. I can only imagine he would be Shocked and Appalled to discover ready supplies of “low” literature in our classrooms. I am aware of one teacher who proudly proclaimed that the only books in her class were books with social justice messages, but then she was not aware that her students went to the library to read Harry Potter on their own. One of my mentors and dear friends has a book collection in her room that would rival the library’s, and they include everything from Journey to Topaz to Chronicles of Narnia to Anne of Green Gables and others. She is the one who got me hooked on Captain Underpants.


 * Jasinski-Schneider, "No Blood, Guns, or Gays Allowed!: The Silencing of the Elementary Writer." Language Arts, Vol. 78, No. 5, May 2001.

Reviewed by Jan Williams

Main Ideas:


 * Limiting, censoring, or directing children’s “voices” in their writing may be detrimental to developing their creativity
 * “Taboo” topics are different for each teacher
 * Teachers have a number of ways of handling what they would deem inappropriate writing.

The author conducted interviews with 12 elementary and middle school teachers, two male and the rest female, to discover their ideas and strategies for dealing with “taboo” topics in the classroom.

My response: This was a wonderful and thought provoking article. While relatively rare, there will be times in our careers where students write about a subject deemed “inappropriate” by either our administration, our local community, or us. How will we deal with it, if at all? The interviewees had interesting responses, but nearly all were confused as to how to really deal with the uglier subjects that may crop up in student stories. Some would allow violence, most would not. Most defaulted to Hail Mary-ing it to the administration.

A number of the teachers simply stood by their belief that “writing is a form of self-expression and children need the freedom to write their thoughts and beliefs.” One teacher stated, “I’m so strongly entrenched with the idea that writing is sometimes your only outlet.”  I tend to agree with this myself. Other teachers said they would allow religious writing as long as it agreed with their own beliefs. Wiccan, Satanist, and Mormon writings would be discouraged by some. Some would discourage talking about homosexual parents.

As a committed, devout Eastern Orthodox Christian myself, I find this disturbing. How can you encourage a child to write if their beliefs are not welcome? It is one thing if the Satanist child was talking about animal sacrifice, and let’s face it, not many children are raised Satanist, but if you exclude one faith you need to exclude them all. Where would you stop the censorship? I may not agree with certain topics or views, but I despise the attack on our freedom of speech these days from all sides.

The author has a great closing comment: “We could continue to confine writing to predetermined moments, taught in predetermined sequences with predetermined methods, using predetermined and ‘acceptable’ topics. But I would rather know what children are really thinking, seeing, and feeling. Do children honestly enjoy writing about dogs and trees, or would they rather laugh out loud as they write about dogs peeing on trees?” If you are instructing students on how to write research papers, then more control and direction from the teacher is needed. But, in my opinion, research papers are as much “writing” as paint-by-number kits are “art”. If you are looking for creativity in students, you need to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.


 * Jester, "Remaining Seated: Lessons Learned by Writing." Voices from the Middle, Vol. 11 No. 2, Dec. 2003.

Reviewed by Jan Williams

Main Ideas:
 * To be an effective teacher of writing, one needs to be a teacher who writes.
 * By being a teacher who writes, one can understand what it is one is asking the students to do, and the difficulties they may face.

This author’s research method is simply being a teacher who writes. She has joined a writing group that serves as motivation and critique for her work.

My response: Yet another wonderful article. Short and sweet – I hope everyone reads it in its entirety, but I know that is just so difficult with our work loads. I love her opening lines, “Every time my writing group meets, I’m working on something new. That’s not because I’m such a prolific writer. It’s because I’m such a prolific avoider.” She doesn’t like to rewrite, and therefore starts new projects instead. Boy, how we can relate!

The author talks about modeling writing for her students and how that helps her understand the anxiety and pitfalls they may face when she asks them to write something; that anxiety when faced with a big, blank page. She states, “I write with them, I whine with them, I win with them, and they know it.” We are preached at in all our various classes about modeling, yet no one has told us to model writing. Even she says that in college “no one ever told me that teachers should be writers.” We are only told to model behaviors and sensitivity and tolerance and hand washing and the like. I found this to be one of those “light bulb moments” for me.


 * Wood Ray, "Why Cauley Writes Well: A Close Look at What a Difference Good Teaching Can Make." Language Arts, Vol. 82 No. 2, Nov. 2004.

Reviewed by Jan Williams

Main Ideas:
 * Students will care to write well if they care (are passionate) about the subject
 * Writing ideas come from things that happen in our everyday lives
 * Writing for extended periods of time, 30 – 40 minutes as opposed to 10 or 15, helps to build stamina to stay with writing.
 * Emphasize the fact that students are not just writing things, but making things with their writing.
 * Encourage students to talk before, during, and after writing about the subjects.
 * Have students read extensively from the genre they will be writing.
 * Ground your teaching in the real world of writing

The author studied Lisa Cleaveland’s 1st grade class and her style of teaching writing. Lisa won the NCTE Donald H. Graves Writing Award in 2002.

My response: And yet another hit-it-out-of-the-ballpark article. It focuses on my main point: being passionate about the subject. If a student is interested in the subject, they will be willing to read different sorts of writing on that subject (different genre) which helps develop their own ideas about what and how to write on that subject. The article focuses on one 1st grade classroom and how the teacher approaches the subject of writing. She insists she teaches writers, not teaches writing. She focuses on having them make their own books and students may be working on a large number of different books at the same time, just like real writers. This is because real writers often have to leave one piece of work for a while and work on something entirely different in order to return to the first piece refreshed. Again this shows modeling and a real understanding of how writing works instead of pushing students to produce in a way that is not natural. Set 4
 * Larson and Maier, "Co-Authoring Classroom Texts: Shifting Participant Roles in Writing Activity."
 * Add your annotation here

Reviewed by: Natalie Hodo In this article, the researcher introduces a wide variety of writing experiences to encourage her class to become good writers. Her philosophy is that, with practice, she can help her students to grow from confident writer to really good writers. She provided them with experiences and situations to respond to in order to ensure all participated. She wanted to not only increase their ability to write, but to demonstrate multiple uses for writing. She introduced writing experiences to assist with their writing, from writing in response to reading, writing to solve problems, writing to complain, and writing to summarize. For this project, no research was conducted; however, as previously mentioned, she introduced experiences to her students to write about. This encouraged all students to write about their personal experiences both inside and outside the classroom. She used writing prompts to start her students off, such as giving a scenario and asking them to write their responses.
 * Linebarger, "Tensing Up: Moving From Fluency to Flair." The Quarterly - Summer 2001, 6 pages
 * Add your annotation here

This article was very inspiring. I think it is a good idea to prompt or coach students when writing to ensure they are not only working independently, but are fully participating. I also liked the fact that the students can freely write whatever they want about real-life situations or on the topic given. In this study, her class positively responded to this method, and the fluence of their writing improved during the course of the school year.

Volume 78, No. 5, May 2001, 9 pages. The key idea for this article is defined literacy being as a medium for social action, whereas a child's achievements are utilized to determine their "place" within their classmates and peer groups. In this article, the author developed many methods of utilizing social interaction while teaching reading and writing to explain how reading and writing were important in students' daily lives, both inside and out of the classroom. She also viewed the classroom as a site for multiple communities of practice, and where multiple communities intersect. Teachers and students come from various ethnic backgrounds and communities, each with their own way of talking and acting. The students aer also members of a peer culture, where they participate together in various activities outside the classroom where their interactions allow them to become friends, such as in school sports, and boy/girl scouts. For this project, the researchers conducted a one-year ethnographic study as a collaborative team of one teacher researcher, and two university-based researchers. Each are experienced teachers of young children. In order to gain as rich a view of literacy learning as possible, they documented 133 of 180 school days and combined multiple sources of information: daily field observations by the teacher research, participant observation and field notes written by the university-based teacher researchers, audio and videotapes of clasroom litearcy eevnts, interviews with the teacher researcher about her instructional decisions, samples of children's writing, exit interviews with each child, and parent questionnaires.
 * Rowe, Fitch, and Bass, "Power, Identity, and Instructional Stance in Writers’ Workshop."
 * Add your annotation here

I would hardly consider this information an ethnographic study, considering of the 18 children studied, 16 were white. The level playing field is that they were all, including the researchers, of middle-class status. I would agree that, in this controlled situation, literacy is considered a social action, as students vied to be popular and to be seen by being good readers and actively participating in classrooom activities to be accepted by their peers and to be considered high achievers. Examples were given of students who did well being considered popular and admired by their peers, as opposed to students who did not read well having to become aggressive to be marginally accepted by their peers.

Although an important study, as, like the previous article Tensing Up: Moving from Fluency to Flair, it teaches the importance of reading and writing to students, and encouraged them to collaborate with peers while writing, it also teaches them to be competitive in a classroom environment to be accepted by peers. This was an interesting study. It just proved the theory that literacy is a social action, as children will eventually be forced to compete for the praise and attention of their teachers and acceptance from their peers.


 * Wood Ray, "Exploring Inquiry as a Teaching Stance in the Writing Workshop."
 * Reviewed by: Natalie Hodo

Exploring Inquiry as a Teaching Stance in the Writing Workshop, Volume 83, No. 3, January, 2006, 10 pages.

The key ideas from this article are: how an inquiry stance is used to uncover curriculum about writing itself; how curriculum is repositioned as the outcome of the instruction rather than the starting point; and how students chart observations to formulate their open op-end pieces (daily offerings of students' opinions on what's happening in their lives). With exploring inquiry, writers sometimes don't state their main idea until the very end, and sometimes they state it right in the middle as a turning point in the text.

To research the instruction fray for inquiry about writing, the researchers used post-its and highlighters and notes in the margins to mark what they noticed about how op-end pieces were written. They charted their observations and used to talk to deepen their understanding of how op-end writing is effectively crafted.

I found the article to be quite interesting. The author chose to teach her students a different method of learning and to view writing as a as a challenge, not a mundane task. In an inquiry stance, teachers help children to explore different alternatives for how to write, and then to duplicate what writers do, to make decisions about how their pieces will be written. Then, while they are gaining that experience, they are gounded in the realities of real-life writing, both the product and process.

I found the article to be interesting. The teacher allowed the students to write about real-life situations in their own words so as to ensure full participation and that they were able to fully participate in the assignment. This allows the teacher to pre-determine lesson plans and to scaffold writing lessons for a period of time. This type of assignment would be helpful for the new teacher in an internship program, as it would allow the teacher to grow with her students.

The research techniques used by the writers included Add your annotation here

Reviewed by: Natalie Hodo 1) Power, Identify, and Instructional Stance in Writers' Workshop - Volume 78, No. 5, May 2001, 9 pages 2) Exploring Inquiry as a Teaching Stance in the Writing Workshop - Volume 83, No. 3, January 2006, 10 pages 3) Tensing up: Moving From Fluency to Flair - The Quarterly - Summer 2001, 6 pages 4) Co-Authoring Classroom Texts: Shifting Participant Roles in Writing Activity - Volume 34, May 2000, 31 pages The key idea from the article Power, Identity and Instructional Stance in Writers' Workshop in literacy is defined as a medium for social action, whereas a child's achievements are utilized to determine their "place" within their classmates and peer groups. In this article, the author developed many methods of utilizing social interaction while teaching reading and writing to teach that reading and writing were important in their daily lives, both inside and out of the classroom. She also viewed the classroom as a site for multiple communities of practice. They can also be viewed as a place where multiple communities intersect. Teachers and students come from various ethnic backgrounds and communities, each with their own way of talking and acting. The students are also members of a peer culture, where they participate together in various activities outside the classroom where their interactions allow them to become friends, such as in school sports, and boy/girl scouts. For this project, they conducted a one-year ethnographic study as a collaborative team of one teacher researcher, and two university-based researchers. Each are experienced teachers of young children. In order to gain as rich a view of literacy learning as possible, they documented 133 of 180 school days and combined multiple sources of information: daily field observations by the teacher researcher, participant observation and field notes written by the university-based teacher researchers, audio and videotapes of classroom literacy events, interviews with the teacher researcher about her instructional decisions, samples of children's writing, exit interviews with each child, and parent questionnaires. I would hardly consider this information an ethnographic study, considering of the 18 children studied, 16 were white. The level playing field is that they were all, including the researchers, of middle-class status. I would agree that, in this controlled situation, literacy is considered a social action, as students vied to be popular and to be seen by being good readers and actively participating in classroom activities to be accepted by their peers and to be considered a high achiever. Examples were given of students who did well being considered popular and admired by their peers, as opposed to students who did not read well having to become aggressive to be marginally accepted by their peers. From the article Exploring Inquiry as a Teaching Stance in a Writing Workshop, the main idea of this study is to reposition curriculum as the outcome of instruction rather than as the starting point, utilizing inquiry and op-end writing. In this study, children were taught that writing is a tool for learning and a means of communicating that learning, but an inquiry stance is used to uncover curriculum about writing itself. With op-end writing, writers sometimes don't state their main idea until the very end, or they might state it in the middle as a turning point in the text. The researcher went to a library and located back issues of familiar newspapers and magazines for examples of op-end writing for topics she thought might interest her students. I found this method of writing to be interesting. It gave the researcher's 5th-grade writing worshop class a different and interesting method of learning to write and to view writing as a challenge, not a mundane task. In an inquiry stance, teachers help children explore different alternatives for how to write something, and then they let them do what writers really do, which is to make decisions about how their pieces will go. Then, while they are gaining that experience, they are grounded in the realities of real-life wrtiting, both the product and process. In the article Tensing Up, Moving from Fluency to Flair, the researcher introduces a wide variety of writing experiences to encourage her class to become good writers. Her philosophy is that with practice, she can help her students to grow from confident writer to really good writers. She provided them with experiences and situations to respond to in order to ensure all participated. She wanted to not only increase their ability to write, but to demonstrate multiple uses for writing. She introduced writing experiences to assist with their writing, from writing in response to reading, writing to solve problems, writing to complain, and writing to summarize. For this project, no research was conducted; however, as previously mentioned, she introduced experiences to her students to write about. This encouraged all students to write about their personal experiences both inside and outside the classroom. She used writing prompts to start her students off, giving a scenario and asking for their response. This article was very inspiring. I feel it is a good idea to prompt or coach students when writing to ensure they are not only working independently, but to ensure full participation. In this study, the author's class positively responded to this method, and the fluency of their writing improved during the course of the school year. In the article Co-Authoring Classroom Texts: Shifting Participant Roles in Writing Activity, the researchers would coach students with their writing, considering themselves as co-authors of the students' work. The work would then be published by the teacher each month at the Author's Tea. At the last Author's Tea of the year, students would read their published stories in the school auditorium to invited guests. In this study, the researchers also considered literacy as a social and cultural practice which included interaction. The researcher would have her students sit on the floor while she wrote on an easel. She would begin a sentence, and then the students would complete the sentence; henceforth completing the story. They would then go to their desks and would write the story independently. Throughout the process, she would offer words of encouragement and made it clear she respected all author's work. This method not only encouraged writing, but reading and learning to speak freely in class and to actively participate. This method also gave the participants confidence in themselves and their abilities to write. The research methods used were also ethnographic research methods. It was also a year-long study. The researcher observed and videotaped classroom literacy activity on a weekly basis throughout the academic year. She interviewed both the teacher and students throughout the project and transcribed all audiotapes. She also took field notes during each observation to document the general flow of activity, including what happened off camera. This article was also interesting to me. It allowed students to write their own stories and inspired them to write well enough to be published in hopes of their stories being read at a formal affair. It also encouraged social interaction amongst the group and used various educational methods to reach the final outcome(reading, interacting with peers, paying attention and listening, and ultimately writing).