Technical Reports and Occasional Papers

tech report

Using Journals


TR 2. Unintentional Helping in the Primary Grades: Writing in the Children's World, by Anne Haas Dyson. Dyson explores children's classroom social lives, as revealed during journal time in a first/second grade class. Her analysis of peer social interactions shows such interactions to be key in contributing to and nurturing the skills and values associated with literacy. May, 1987; 29 pages; $4.00.
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TR 9. Individual Differences in Beginning Composing: An Orchestral Vision of Learning to Write, by Anne Haas Dyson. Looking in depth at three first graders during classroom journal time, Dyson explores the interconnections of the children's speaking, writing, and drawing as indications of their developing acquisition of written language. Her analysis reveals the complexity of the writing acquisition process, as the three symbol systems interact in different ways for the different students. August, 1987; 28 pages; $4.00.
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OP 3. Drawing, Talking and Writing: Rethinking Writing Development, by Anne Haas Dyson. Based on Dyson's studies of primary grade children engaged in journal writing, this paper discusses how children move among and negotiate multiple worlds: the text world they create on paper; the social world that they share with their peers; and the wider experienced world of people, places, events and things. Children's texts thus become increasingly embedded in their lives. February, 1988; 26 pages; $4.00.
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OP 13. Must Teachers Also Be Writers? by Vivian Gussin Paley. In this paper, Paley provides examples of her classroom experiences with kindergartners, showing how keeping a daily journal helps her to understand her students, their learning, and her own teaching. Says Paley: "Only as we write down our thoughts and observations may we question and argue with ourselves about the things we do and say." September, 1989; 17 pages; $3.50.
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