Donald GravesProf. Myrna Monllor

Prof. Helen Avilés

"For years I've recommended that teachers write with

their pupils, but very few have done

that"

NCTE Donald H. Graves Writing Award

http://www.ncte.org/awards/graves

Donald H. Graves

Donald H. Graves “Children want to write.  They want to write the

first day they attend school.  This is no accident.  Before they went to school they marked up walls, pavements, newspapers with crayons, chalk, pens or pencils…anything that makes a mark.  The child’s marks say, ‘I am.” 

Donald Graves conducted studies on how children learned to write

advocate of the writing process (prewriting, writing, revising, publishing)

believes teachers should write themselves

believes in children choosing their own writing topics writing almost every day approaching revision naturally learning the mechanics of writing through a combination of reading and writing

Misconceptions Not much is expected from children when they choose

their own topics

Mechanics are not important

Children do not need to write if they don’t feel like it

How to foster writing programs

teachers should get together, support each other, share ideas

convince others by showing children’s work

let children speak for themselves about what they have learned