Elementary

=__**Writing**__= - submitted by Noel Brown, Kristen Schaefer, and Becky Lambert - submitted by Noel Brown, Kristen Schaefer, and Becky Lambert - submitted by Noel Brown, Kristen Schaefer, and Becky Lambert -submitted by Noel Brown, Kristen Schaefer, and Becky Lambert -submitted by Dixon Allen This article describes instructional steps and teaching behaviors for explicit primary-grade, small-group writing instruction in a supportive, guided context. Each section includes examples of teacher-student interaction during guided writing lessons. The article also describes two specific assessment procedures that support guided writing instruction.

-submitted by Dixon Allen This was a study where supplemental writing instruction was used in planning and revising stories that had been written by young writers with learning disabilities and poor writing skills. A total of six second graders practiced a strategy for planning and writing stories using the SRSD approach (Self-regulated strategy development). After instructor modeling of the revisions to be made, the students then revised their own stories. Results included post-instruction stories created by the children that were longer, more complete in terms of story grammar elements, and also stories that were qualitatively better. Also, students had increased the amount of time that they spent planning their stories as well as the number of revisions attempted.

-submitted by Dixon Allen In this study, a group of third grade students were taught strategies for planning and writing stories, while a control group of third graders received traditional writing instruction (which included mostly spelling and grammar). The students who were instructed on writing strategies produced stories that were longer, schematically stronger, and qualitatively better than the stories written by students in the control group.

-submitted by Dixon Allen

Writing is an important part of the social studies teacher's instruction. This article emphasizes the importance of integrating writing into a social studies curriculum. In the upper elementary grades, students are writing and reading to learn. The article also highlights the significance of teacher-guided/modeled writing instruction. Specific strategies are provided. By exploring writing, teachers can help deepen a students’ understanding of content and social studies skills.

=**__Technology__**= -submitted by Ashley Cochran and Jennifer Hunter A frequent criticism of technology applications in classrooms is that they are little more than extraneous bells and whistles pointlessly tacked onto routine instruction. The ﬂash and splash of a PowerPoint presentation may look good, but many question the value added to student learning. This leads to the question, how can technologies genuinely contribute to enhanced learning? We need to show explicitly how a constructivist perspective can be helpful in planning and delivering instruction and how technologies can signiﬁcantly support effective and theoretically sound teaching.