This exploratory study evaluated the effects of self-regulated strategy development (SRSD) on students' written expression when asked to solve a word problem and explain reasoning. A secondary question evaluated potential for differential effects based on determination of having mathematics difficulty (MD). We implemented a quasi-experimental…

During a classroom-based study, Grade 4 students were provided with multiple opportunities to develop their visual meaning-making skills and competences, as well as their aesthetic understanding of and critical thinking about multimodal texts. Intentionally designed instruction during the research included a range of activities focused on specific…

This study investigated fourth and fifth graders' metacognitive knowledge about writing and its relationship to writing performance to help identify areas that might be leveraged when designing effective writing instruction. Students' metacognitive knowledge was probed using a 30-minute informative writing prompt requiring students to teach their…

In this systematic review of literature that spans 1975-2015, integrated reading and writing interventions for students with learning disabilities (LD) or students with academic difficulties were evaluated to understand the extant research, identify encouraging practices, and guide future research. Ten studies met inclusion criteria and each study…

The Berge et al. article in this volume presents the functional construct of writing that underlies summative and formative assessment of writing as a key competency in Norway. A functional construct implies that specific acts of writing and their purposes constrain what is a relevant selection among the semiotic resources that writing generally…

Within a Response to Intervention (RtI) framework, Tier 1 instruction requires the selection of research-based core curricula. However, many educators and administrators are not aware of high-quality core writing curricula. The authors assembled a rubric to assist schools in evaluating core writing curricula for Grades 3-5. Rubric components…

The purpose of this study was to identify and describe teaching actions--embedded in the "Science Writing Heuristic approach," a systematic teaching approach that integrates literacy instruction and argument-based inquiry learning of science--supportive of the cross-disciplinary literacy expectations necessary to compete in the 21st…

In this commentary, the authors bring insights from their work on science-literacy integration at the elementary level to bear on the ongoing conversation about disciplinary literacy at the middle and secondary levels. In particular, the authors discuss what they have learned about inquiry, disciplinary reading strategies, and the role of text in…

Many of today's students are reading below grade level and schools are investigating methods for increasing student achievement in the area of reading. This mixed method research study investigated the achievement of students who were reading below grade level. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between reading response…

During what might have in the distant past been called "quiet time" in Arlene Anderson's fourth-grade classroom, many of her students are glued to their netbooks. The intense, enthusiastic focus and the hushed chatter amongst the students are all about high scores and strategy. Students are revising and editing their writing assignments within a…

Two separate writing-to-learn activities in which students wrote to authentic audiences outside of the instructor were used in a college integrated science course, Science of Water. For the first task, students were asked to write to fourth-grade students, and for the second, students were asked to write to their academic advisor. An overview of…

"Blogging across the curriculum: Integrating blogging in the elementary classroom" is an Action Research Project that sought to explore the level of engagement in the writing process by students in grades 3, 4 & 5 while blogging across the curriculum. Blogging took place in homeroom classrooms as well as in the school's math, science and…

This article reports the results of interview research examining writing instruction and assessment practices in 216 Grades 4-8 classrooms across the 10 Canadian provinces and 2 (of 3) territories. Researchers found that participating teachers scheduled daily time for writing, either in language arts classes or through integrating writing…

This article uses "fibbin" (Fibonacci poems) as an instructional strategy to teaching reading and writing across the curriculum. It describes fibbin from a historical and mathematical perspective and discusses it as an adaptation of the famous Fibonacci sequence to teaching content area material (e.g. science, math, and social studies). This…

This article discusses the effectiveness of using computer assisted language learning (CALL) in motivating fourth-grade English as a second language (ESL) students to develop better writing skills. It also seeks to explore the perceptions of ESL teachers and students regarding the use of CALL in the ESL classroom. The study involved 48 fourth…