Can't Have Good Without the Bad: Limitations of the Text

Unfortunately, no book or strategy is perfect. One of the skills of being a responsive and critical reader is to consider where a source, or strategy lacks.

Although I found Peterson's work highly useful, full of practical strategies, mini-lessons and tools for assessment, I found that most of the content was heavily-geared towards the Junior and Intermediate grades. There is no indication in the back blurb, or the title itself that the entirety of the book would be targeting those writers older than Primary Level. As a result, I found this a bit disappointing (and somewhat misleading) -- as all of the practical resources and ideas would have to be modified for a younger classroom.

Additionally, part of the reasoning for providing writing opportunities during content-area subjects was that during "free-choice" writing periods, students "often write using stereotypical views of gender and social class" (p.6). Although I do not dispute these claims, I do not feel that avoiding "free-choice" writing period effectively challenges this problem -- but rather avoids the issue.

Lastly, there is not much explicit mention of where exactly the research base is coming from. Although I can extrapolate that the findings come from Peterson's own practical experience, as well as Action Based Research using interviews with other educators, I was forced to make these assumptions on my own, and would've preferred it to be laid out explicitly.

As a result of these limitations, I'd like to ask Peterson these 2 questions:

1. What was your research base? Where did you get the information? And how did you develop the strategies?
2. Do you have any practical resources (such as those presented in the book) that have been developed for the Primary level classroom?