Czerney

Annotate Bibliography Atwell, N., (1985). Everyone Sits at a Big Desk: Discovering Topics for Writing. The English Journal, 74 (5), 35-39. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/817698 Writing should be an opportunity for students to have a voice in the classroom. Atwell references to Lucy Calkins idea of an underground curriculum of the students ideas and knowledge, that the teacher too often ignores. It should not be the teachers role to assign mandatory writing topics, but rather demonstrate good writing habits for students to imitate and make their own. By modeling and participating, the teacher demonstrates that each student has their own story to tell. According to Donald Graves and Lucy Calkins research, students should develop as writers by having the opportunities of authors: daily time for writing, conferences with teachers, and peers, and opportunities to draft, revise, and publish their writing; most significantly they took responsibility for deciding what and why and for whom they would write. This is a necessary freedom for a child to find their own authors voice. Furthermore, the recognition for the need of time, talk, and reading all play an important role in writing. Dressman, M., (1993). Lionizing Lone Wolves: The Cultural Romantics of Literacy Workshops. Curriculum Inquiry, 23(3), 245-263. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1179992 Dressman directly addresses the ideal of Readers and Writers Workshop through this article that emphasizes the sense of community and individual choice to build life long readers and writers. Referencing other great researchers, Nancie Atwell, Lucy Calkins, and Donald Graves, he creates the statement students largely read silently and independently from books of their choice and dialogue with teachers and classmates through response journals, while promising to transform the reluctant readersinto lifelong loves of books and into critical, literate citizens, are also, by design, a socially reproductive practice. That is the true purpose of literacy development. Dressman continues by linking a strength in literacy to overall intelligence. Another important aspect, is the sense of community within that safe reading environment. Students are able to make connections between text and writing, between themselves and others, and between texts. These workshops allow for a collective negotiation of meaning and gives students a voice in the classroom where they are able to learn through their own exploration. Dressman, M., (1999). On the Use and Misuse of Research Evidence: Decoding Two States Reading Initiatives. Reading Research Quarterly, 34(3), 258285. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/748064 In reviewing the reading initiatives of two highly regarded states in the world of education, Mark Dressman reviews the practices of Texas and California. He begins by referencing education of the past and effects of various diversity

aspects. Specifically Dressman addresses race in the school systems and the role it has played in these two states. This is not of primary concern for the article, after doing so, he begins to evaluate the development of literacy through these programs. After much research and refences to many studies of Phonemic/Phonological Awareness, he states that the future of children as literate individuals in these states is jeopardized by current curriculums based principally on the reading and writing of meaningful textsneed to be replaced by explicit, systematic instruction It is then evident that students need a consistent program that marries reading and writing that is taught with consistency. He also emphasizes the importance of research based teaching and recognized that these states had not revisited their curriculum for the relevancy to todays youth. This further supports my desire to implement a research based program that can be taught routinely beginning at a young age for Phonemic/Phonological Awareness. Graves, D.H., (1975). An Examination of the Writing Process of Seven Year Old Children. Research in the Teaching of English, 9 (3), 227-241. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40170631 Through this case study, Graves looks closely at the development of the writing process of seven-year-old children. After observing students writing, the classroom setting in which this occurred, analyzing writing samples, and looking at the interventions of the teachers in those classrooms. This study came to conclusions about learning environments, sex differences in writing, developmental factors and the writing process. Thus proving that students need a relaxed environment to be able to write freely and independently and recognizing the difference in the needs of students based on gender. Reactive and reflective writers were identified, with rather opposite characteristics. Reflective writers have a strong sense of audience and provide reasoning for their feelings in writing. These are the characteristics in writers that we should be aware of and encourage. However, Graves goes on to ask further questions that apply to my research, and emphasizes the need for additional observation on this topic of writing development. Graves, D. H., (1991). Trust the Shadows. The Reading Teacher, 45 (1), 18-24. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20200796 Specifically looking at the writing programs within American schools, Graves digs deeper to find out what kind of writing is taking place in the classroom. One surprising finding was from the school supply companies, noting that lined paper (which is used for writing) purchases were in steep decline. One topic studied with Lucy Calkins, was the process through which students revise their work. Graves also mentions the differences in topic choice between genders and the range of focus through which children write, but both genders place a large focus on the character and the motion and action of that individual. The level of character development in a childs writing can also signify the level of their development as a writer. Finally, he relates it, through poetry, to adult writers and the importance of understanding what information is necessary to the piece and

what is superfluous. Students often write what they think the teacher wants as an answer instead of truly acting as a writer and trust (their) own thinking. Hansen, J., & Graves, D., (1986, April). Do You Know What Backstrung Means? The Reading Teacher, 39(8), 807-812. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20199226 . In a study conducted by Jane Hanson and Donald Graves, in Lee, New Hampshire at the Mast Way School (K-5), they found the importance of the teacher actively portraying a learner in the classroom. Teachers always attend professional development, read teacher books, or even do research, but the importance of this study was to demonstrate that a teacher learner values student knowledge and models learning for his/her students is the most effective. The teacher must listen to his/her students and ask questions, the students will then imitate the actions and do the same. This can be related to reading and writing in the sense that the teacher must show students how to be both and actively participate in the practices of reading and writing. Teachers often hold back from allowing their students opportunities to teach and share, sometimes afraid to lose control over their classroom. Hansen and Graves emphasize teachers participate in similar practices as their students, e.g. reviewing others writing. They then dive deeper into the roles of both the teachers and students engaging in the writing process. McCarthey, S. J., (2000). Home: School Connections: A Review of the Literature. The Journal of Educational Research, 93(3), 145-153. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/27542260 Connecting home and school can be a great challenge, but with a literacy program that embraces and enables parents to be an active participant in their students life is what every school needs. By having a program in which the teach has more control over the content and subjects taught, they are able to incorporate lessons and texts that reinforce the lives of their students. Although this article discusses greatly, ways in which to involve parents, the relevance lies in the flexibility allowed through various reading workshops that is not allowed through textbook programs. As McCarthey emphasizes, understanding their students backgrounds is important so that the teacher may alter curriculum and discourse patterns to include all children, and strictly following a textbook of stories through which families cannot relate, will not bridge the gap from classroom to home. Through workshop style curriculum, the teacher would be able to reinforce those connections and allow parents to be a great part of their students literacy development.