1. The "Basics" and Society's Children: Cases of Classroom Writing
On Metaphoric Mailboxes and Textual Playgrounds: Basic Critiques
Neighborhood Drives: Places for Childhoods Past and Present
Part I. Basic Lessons and Basic Tensions
2. Welcome to Writing Workshop
The Classroom as Community: Working (and Playing) Together
The Basics and the Official Writing Lives of Young Children
Wide-Awake Children and Blinds-Shut Basics
3. Looking Good and Sounding "Right": Fix-Its
Kindergarten Fix-Its: Where Do Written Stories Come From?
1. st-Grade Fix-Its: Whose Voice Is That?
The Basics in a Symbol-Mediated, Voice-Filled World
4. The Ethics of Writing: On Truth and Ownership
"A Real Story About You" (The You That Is Not Spider-Man)
Your Own Story (The One That Is Not Copied)
Writing a Life Story (Or Writing in a Social Life?)
A Change in Angle of Vision
Part II. Writing "Basics" in Childhood Spaces
5. Shifting Expectations and Differing Ethics: Entering Childhood Cultures
Relational Fix-Its: "Put My Name in There!"
Organizing and Enacting Relationships: "Can I Play?"
A Caution About Developmental Order
6. Collegial Relations and Coordinated Actions: Textual Handclaps
Written Language and the Mediation of Childhood Cultures
The Relational Landscape for Textual Play: Situating Old Basics in Child Spaces
7. Complementary Relations and Improvisational Play: On Matters of Birthdays, Love, and War
Complementary Relations and Birthday Parties
Complementary Relations and Their Lack: The Complex Game of Love
From Complementary Relations to Collaborative Improvisations: The Pine Cone Wars
The Basic Dramas of Children's Textual Play
8. Performers on a Movable Stage: On the Malleability of Voice and Image
Storytelling: Communicative Resources and Social Stages
Rhyming and Singing: New Written Venues for Play and Performance
9. Re-Imagining Writing Basics for Contemporary Childhoods
Contextualizing the Basics
Toward a Re-Envisioned Basic Education
Appendix A. Reflections on Methods
Constructing Analytic Narratives
Appendix B. Demographic Tables
Table B.1. Sex and Ethnicity of Mrs. Kay's Children
Table B.2. Sex and Ethnicity of Mrs. Bee's Children
