Practical Ideas for Teaching Writing As a Process

A collaborative effort on the part of teachers from and consultants for the University of California, Irvine/California Writing Project, this guide presents ideas for teaching writing as a process at all levels of the curriculum. Each section of the guide presents an essay introducing the section topic, followed by practical ideas for teaching that technique or stage of the writing process. Also included are applications of writing techniques at particular grade levels, descriptions of ways to modify assignments, new ideas that were generated by an original idea, and variations on a theme. Following an introduction to the California Writing Project, the contents of the guide are divided into the following sections: (1) the writing process; (2) prewriting; (3) prewriting in the elementary school; (4) prewriting in different subjects; (5) showing, not telling (a training program for student writers); (6) writing; (7) domains of writing; (8) writing the saturation report; (9) point of view in writing; (10) writing the I-search paper; (11) sharing/responding; (12) Reading Around Groups (RAGs) for sharing/responding; (13) rewriting/editing; (14) revising for correctness; (15) building vocabularies; (16) evaluation; and (17) evaluation techniques. A list of selected references for literature, other sources, and publications about writing, and a list of publications available from the California State Department of Education are appended. (MM)