Coping with chaos
Publisher: Rozelle; Primary English Teaching Association
Published: 1987
Place of publication: New South Wales, Australia
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 70
Copyright date: 1987
Notes: They are 2 editions. The 1987 edition with no isbn and the 1991 edition under OL1868658M. 
Includes Illustrations.
Table of contents: title: Chapter 1 describes the kinds of activities in which children engage in seemingly chaotic process oriented classrooms and stresses the importance of classroom-level research. Chapter 2 discusses in detail Australian 'process-writing' classrooms, describing what they look like and what they have in common. The chapter reveals what children do in these classes, and the classroom role of related activities, environmental print, repetition, assistance from and interaction with peers and the teacher, and the use of temporary or invented spelling. Using insights from linguistics and psychology, chapter 3 reveals how researchers feel the relationship between social setting and coping behaviors of the children combine for effective rapid learning. Chapter 4 details how the theory applies to the writing of two children, one of English speaking background and one whose family spoke Vietnamese. Eight samples of each child's writing are provided to show their progress and reveal the writing strategies used by each. The final chapter reiterates the important elements of the process-oriented classroom: (1) immersion, (2) demonstrations, (3) responsibility, (4) expectations, (5) approximations, (6) practice, and (7) response. It also stresses that teachers should understand children's learning and the nature of language. References are appended and the text is illustrated with photographs and actual writing samples. (SKC)