Reclaiming Writing Composing Spaces for Identities, Relationships, and Actions

With passion, clarity, and rich examples, Reclaiming Writing is dedicated to reawakening the journeys that writers take as they make sense of, think about, and speak back to their worlds in this era of high-stakes testing and mandated curricula. Classrooms and out-of-school settings are described and analyzed in exciting and groundbreaking narratives that provide insights into the many possibilities for writing that support writers? searches for voice, identity, and agency.

Offering pedagogical strategies and the knowledge base in which they are grounded, the book looks at writing within various areas of the curriculum and across modes of writing from traditional text-based forums to digital formats. Thematically based sections present the pillars of the volume?s critical transactive theory: learning, teaching, curriculum, language, and sociocultural contexts. Each chapter is complemented by an extension that offers application possibilities for teachers in various settings. Reclaiming Writing emphasizes literacy as a vehicle for exploring, interrogating, challenging, finding self, talking back to power, creating a space in the world, reflecting upon the past, and thinking forward to a more joyful and democratic future.

Introduction 1. Introduction: Reclaiming WritingPillar I: LEARNING 2. Shoshana Learns to Write: A Longitudinal Study - Yetta M. Goodman and Kenneth S. Goodman
Chapter 2 Extension: Reclaiming Identities and Learning to Write - Bobbie Kabuto
3. Artful Bookmaking: Learning by Design - Kathryn F. Whitmore & Marie Gernes
Chapter 3 Extension: The Circus of Design - S. Rebecca Leigh
4. Learning to Respond in Writers’ Workshop - Allen Koshewa
Chapter 4 Extension: Learning Authentic Genres in a Community of Writers - Michael L. Shaw Pillar II: TEACHING 5. When the Water Goes Bad and Other Essential Reasons to Argue and Write About Science in Elementary Classrooms - Lori Norton-Meier and Brian Hand
Chapter 5 Extension: Young Mathematicians Writing for Real Reasons - Elisa Waingort
6. Teaching the Joy of Writing through Wikis - Shannon Blady & Roxanne Henkin
Chapter 6 Extension: After-School Technology Possibilities - Lindsay Laurich & Kathryn F. Whitmore
7. Supporting Writers as They Learn to Spell: A Holistic Approach - Maryann Manning & Marilee Ransom
Chapter 7 Extension: Constructivist Spelling, Yes! Constructivist Grammar, Too! - Sandra Wilde Pillar III: CURRICULUM 8. Reworking Writing Workshop - Kathryn Mitchell Pierce
Chapter 8 Extension: Creating Gems of Writing - Dick Koblitz
9. Writing Pictures, Drawing Stories: Reclaiming Multimodal Composing in First Grade - Prisca Martens, Ray Martens, Michelle Hassay Doyle, and Jenna Loomis
Chapter 9 Extension: Reclaiming Multimodal Responses in Fifth Grade - Renita Schmidt
10. Sing Me a Song of Writing: Transforming the Writing Curriculum with the Help of One Child’s Determination - Jane Baskwill
Chapter 10 Extension: Trusting Students’ Visions for a Participatory Video Project - Lenny Sanchez

Pillar IV: LANGUAGE 11. Using Multiple Languages to Write with Passion and Purpose - Katie Van Sluys
Chapter 11 Extension: Translanguaging: A Language Space for Multilinguals - Susana Ibara Johnson & Richard J. Meyer
12. Intentional Moves to Build Community in Writer’s Workshop - Amy Seely Flint & Sanjuana Rodriguez
Chapter 12 Extension: Uncovering Children’s Expository Writing within Home and Community Lives - Charlene Klassen Endrizzi
13. “Learning How to Mean:” Writing and Gardening in Two Urban Schools - Patricia Paugh, Mary Moran, and Geoff Rose
Chapter 13 Extension: “So My Grandpa Knows What Way to Drive the Tractor:” Children Engage Rural Ways of Knowing - Lori Norton-Meier Pillar V: SOCIOCULTURAL CONTEXTS 14. Producing Cultural Imaginaries in the Playshop - Karen Wohlwend & Carmen Liliana Medina
Chapter 14 Extension: The Girls Go to the 70s and the 80s: Self-Produced Videos and Play - Chuck Jurich & Richard J. Meyer
15. Digital Media, Critical Literacy, and the Everyday: Exploring Writing in the 21st Century - Vivian Maria Vasquez, Peggy Albers, & Jerome C. Harste
Chapter 15 Extension: Writing as Designing: Reclaiming the Social and Multimodal Aspects of Writing - Candice R. Kuby
16. Democratic Writing in Video Production: Reclaiming the Social Nature of Writing Practices - Chuck Jurich and Richard J. Meyer
Chapter 16 Extension: Democratic Writing and Multiliteracies Work in Schools and Community Centers - Linda Skidmore Coggin & Carmen Liliana Medina Conclusion 17. Listening to Compose Spaces for Identities, Relationships, and Actions

Richard J. Meyer is Professor, University of New Mexico, College of Education, Department of Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies, USA.

Kathryn F. Whitmore is the Ashland Inc./Nystrand Chair in Early Childhood Education, College of Education and Human Development, University of Louisville, USA.