Resource Topics

Teaching Writing - Writing and Literature

Dancing with the Authors: Teaching Sentence Fluency

April 2008
Bev Matulis
By making use of a new "featured sentence structure" each week, Bev Matulis, who is with the Saginaw Bay Writing Project, demonstrates strategies that model and reinforce varied sentence constructions in this chapter from Writing Intention: Prompting Professional Learning through Student Work. More ›

Growing Writers: Considering Talk, Time, Models, and Purpose

April 2008
Renee Webster
In this chapter from Writing Intention: Prompting Professional Learning through Student Work, Renee Webster, who is with the Red Cedar Writing Project, describes how she supplements her first grade writing workshop by using the text of picture books to provide models of techniques—such as "sound words"—that students integrate into their writing. More ›

Leading with Intention

April 2008
Tony Tendero, Cynthia Clingman
In this introductory chapter to Writing Intention: Prompting Professional Learning through Student Work, the authors point out that the book's contributors "intentionally center their teaching on the reciprocal relationship between reading and writing." They provide suggestions for how these materials may be discussed. More ›

Sherman Alexie in the Classroom

2008
Sherman Alexie in the Classroom, a volume in NCTE's High School Literature Series, examines ways to teach the works of Alexie, widely considered today's premiere Native American writer. Heather Bruce, director of the Montana Writing Project, coauthored the book. More ›

Finding a Voice in a Threaded Discussion Group: Talking about Literature Online

English Journal , September 2007
Cathie English
Cathie English, a teacher-consultant with the Nebraska Writing Project, explores the use of threaded online discussions in the literature classroom. The online discussions helped high school students develop their thoughts in greater depth than in classroom conversations. More ›

Reading Researcher Advocates Strengthening Literacy Programs Through Reading-Writing Synergy

Fall 2007
P. David Pearson
Reading researcher P. David Pearson shares his thoughts about how the synergy between reading and writing holds implications for developing literacy in classrooms. More ›

They Have to See It to Write It: Visualization and the Reading-Writing Connection

November 2007
Elizabeth Dinkins
Frustrated by her students’ reluctance to write, a seventh-grade teacher shows them how to “see” what they’re reading and draw what they want to write about—and they begin to think like writers. More ›

Creating Empathetic Connections to Literature

The Quarterly, 2005
Lesley Roessing
Taken aback by her eighth grade students' dry-eyed response to The Diary of Anne Frank, Roessing finds a way to help students convert the "them" they encounter in multicultural literature into "us." More ›

Reading is Nuts

The Voice, 2004
Philip Ireland
In this personal reflection, Philip Ireland weaves together a 15-year-old's current struggle with The Old Man and the Sea and his memory of learning to crack open "The Lottery" in the fifth grade. The lesson he learned from his teacher 20 years ago was that in order to crack the shell of great literature, one must pay attention. More ›

A Geography of Stories: Helping Secondary Students Come to Voice Through Readings, People, and Place

The Quarterly, 2003
Phip Ross
The following excerpt from the newly released National Writing Project/Teachers College Press book articulates how students' awareness of personal identity contributes to a unique sense of voice. Here, Phip Ross elaborates on how the transcription of people's experiences and surroundings can create an immortal and meaningful expression of who we are in relation to our communities. More ›

Book Review: The Literature Workshop: Teaching Texts and Their Readers, by Sheridan Blau

The Quarterly, 2003
Fran Claggett
Fran Claggett reviews The Literature Workshop: Teaching Texts and Their Readers by Sheridan Blau. More ›

Lafayette Reads Ernest Gaines: One Book, One Community

The Voice, January-February 2003
Elizabeth Nehrbass
Nehrbass tells how the town of Lafayette, Louisiana, read and discussed Ernest Gaines' A Lesson Before Dying as a community, and learned about how to talk to each other, how to listen, how to be together. More ›

How Reading Poetry Will Help You Get a Six-Figure Job

The Quarterly, Winter 2001
Britton Gildersleeve
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Literature for my Classroom: What's Out There?

The Voice, March-April 2001
Ed Osterman
Recognizing that many teachers simply don't have time to find new literature for their classes, teachers at the New York City Writing Project compiled an annotated bibliography of fiction and nonfiction, with suggested activities and related resources. More ›

"The Most" Successful Literature Review Activity

The Voice, September-October 2000
Amy R. Wainwright
Amy R. Wainwright from the Jaxwrite Writing Project in Florida describes a classroom game that helped her students improve their ability to cite texts and quotes and convincingly explain their relevance. More ›

Taking Out the Furniture, or What's Obvious: Lessons from the Literature Institute for Teachers

The Quarterly, Winter 2000
Marjorie Roemer
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You and Me and a Book Makes Three: Students Write Collaborative Book Reviews

The Quarterly, Summer 1999
Bernadette Lambert
Lambert describes a project in which students and parents share and write about the same book. More ›

Annotated Bibliography for Kids and Teachers Who Love Words

The Quarterly, Fall 1997
Christine Facciolli
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Children as Writers in Literature, with Annotated Bibliography

The Quarterly, Spring 1997
Christina Faccioli
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The Library Corner: Literature as Language: Using Kids' Books to Teach About Words

The Quarterly, Fall 1997
Christine Facciolli
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Is Whole Language Doomed?

The Voice, Summer 1996
Harvey Daniels
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Literature in the Classroom, or "Say Not the Struggle Not Availeth"

The Quarterly, Fall 1996
Jane Juska
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Book Review: Opening Texts: Using Writing To Teach Literature, by Kathleen Andrasick

The Quarterly, Winter 1992
Tom Romano
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Gender: Classroom Models for Thinking and Writing About Literature and Film

The Quarterly, Spring 1991
John R. Maitino
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The Facts and Nothing but the Facts: Using Objective Writing in the Teaching of Poetry

The Quarterly, Fall 1990
Richard Gillin
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Building a Literate Community: Report from an NEH Literature Institute for Teachers

The Quarterly, Summer 1989
Angus Dunstan
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OP 07. The Problem-Solving Processes of Writers and Readers

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Occasional Paper, 1989
Betsey Bowen, Bertram C. Bruce, Linda Flower, Margaret Kantz, Ann M. Penrose, Ann S. Rosebery
The authors focus on writing and reading as forms of problem solving that are shaped by communicative purpose, for example problems incurred in writing for a specific audience or reading to interpret text. More ›

Teachers' Perceptions of the Role of Process in Writing about Literature

The Quarterly, October 1988
Phyllis MacAdam, George E. Newell
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The Role of the Response Journal in Active Reading

The Quarterly, July 1988
Sharon Flitterman-King
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TR 13. Writing and Reading: The Transactional Theory

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Technical Report, January 1988
Louise M. Rosenblatt
This report focuses on some epistemologically based concepts concerning the comparison of the reading and writing process that Rosenblatt believes merit fuller study and application in teaching and research. More ›

Style Study: One Connection Between Reading and Writing

The Quarterly, July 1987
Rebekah Caplan
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TR 06. The Role of Task Representation in Reading-to-Write

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Technical Report, June 1987
Linda Flower
Flower examines the ways different college writers interpret a "standard" writing task, demonstrating how students construct different representations of a task, leading to differences in their texts and their writing process. More ›

Responsive Writing: Connecting Literature and Composition

The Quarterly, March 1986
Helen C. Lodge
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