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This article examines the writing and drawing produced by a group of children during “writing workshop” time throughout their first-grade year. The purpose of the study was to obtain insight into the general question: Do genres “emerge” in ways analogous to other aspects of writing development? While the study is limited to a specific group of first-grade writers, it provides insights which suggest that genre may indeed be “emergent.” Emergence is supported by evidence of the following: Quantitative and qualitative changes in the organization of texts, with genres appearing as adaptations rather than fixed forms or generalized verbal products; an interplay among drawing, talking, reading, and writing in the construction of genres; the influence of the specific recurring social context of Writing Workshop and the genres surrounding and embedded in it; and the impact overall of the socialization into literacy occurring within this specific classroom community.

I have presented the findings from a longitudinal case study of one child's writing from kindergarten to grade 3, across different curriculum contexts, with a focus on writing in mathematics, social studies, science, and music. I describe changes in textual features of the child's writing over time, which support Newkirk's (1987) developmental schema for non-narrative writing and extend my previous studies of emergent genres (Chapman, 1994, 1995). The data show that the focal child's content-area writing began in grade 1 and was, to a great degree, focused on exposition, progressing from simple lists and labels to multi-paragraph reports.

Drawing on a sociocultural perspective of genre as a social action situated in a particular context, this study examined the functions and genres of four second-grade ESL (English as a Second Language) children’s English writing at home and at school. The two boys and two girls were born and raised in Canada, speaking English at school and with their siblings, and Cantonese at home with their parents. A total of 67 pieces of school writing and 54 pieces of home writing were collected over a five-week period. Findings show that home writing exhibit a wider range of functions and genres than school writing. The study suggests that teachers should be aware of the value of the writing opportunities and contexts bicultural children have at home and, therefore, incorporate such home experiences into classroom teaching to enrich the process of literacy development.

The author explores new conceptions of genre and genre learning: learning genres, learning through genres, and learning about genres. Drawing on the work of Bahktin, she argues that reconceptualizing genres as situated, social, and active, rather than focusing on formal features, can extend and enrich process approaches to writing and enhance learning in the elementary classroom.