This article discusses two schemes for teaching writing in schools. One uses analysis of model texts into techniques and devices then application of these by students to their written compositions and one uses a process approach that includes pre-writing and exploring, drafting, sharing and discussing, revising and celebrating to exploit students'…

The paper explores questions of power arising from feminist facilitators running a doctoral writing group at a UK university. Butler's [2014. Re-thinking Vulnerability and Resistance. [Online]. Accessed September 12, 2017.…

Getting students to read actively for a required introductory course in literature poses several challenges, to say nothing of trying to make required reading personally meaningful. This essay outlines assignments that encourage students to make literature meaningful by establishing personal connections to texts in ways that can also impact…

This article describes a cooperative writing response initiative designed to develop writing skills in foreign/second-language contexts (hereafter L2). The strategy originated from my desire to cater for my learners' need to become better writers in English within a constrained educational environment in Argentina. In this article I describe this…

Textbooks and grammar worksheets do not adequately convey to students how readers or listeners are shaped by the language of the writer. The best way to help students understand the emphasis of a dash or another device is to see one used during a suspenseful moment in a dramatic selection. It is up to the teacher to select dramatic works that…

In a highly competitive higher education environment where resources are limited, educators are increasingly concerned with providing evidence for the effectiveness of teaching interventions including one-to-one writing support. This article offers a model for analysing the changes in student writing as a result of individualised writing…

An idea to bring ethnically diverse authors to Southeast Idaho to promote reading and cultural understandings was conceived 24 years ago. The Visiting Author Series resulted from a committee's dream and resulted in new understandings of the literacy process as well as bringing the world to this region.

Not so many years ago, comic books in school were considered the enemy. Students caught sneaking comics between the pages of bulky--and less engaging--textbooks were likely sent to the principal. Today, however, comics, including classics such as "Superman" but also their generally more complex, nuanced cousins, graphic novels, are not only…

Describes an assignment in which students read a travelogue excerpt and then must determine specified aspects of the writer's character based on evidence from the text. Notes how this exercise shapes students' awareness of how character influences writing, and how biases and assumptions influence reading. (SR)

Describes an argument workshop that can demystify the concept for students by revealing to them how much they already know about persuading an audience. Concludes that an argument workshop helps students see the authors included in their textbooks as individuals who drew from a repertoire of argumentative techniques to persuade an audience. (SG)

Describes a two-week unit about Benjamin Franklin, and discusses what happens when 9- and 10-year olds use their own language and life experiences to learn new content. (SR)

Describes a modified method of reader-response used as a core activity in a literature classroom in which students write a short written response at the beginning of every class to the reading due that day. Describes the procedure, its relationship to effective writing, and its benefits, including reading more critically, writing more effectively,…

Describes a reader response heuristic which approaches expository texts on a feeling and experiential level. Focuses on the work of one student writer to show how the student's interpretations of a text on Arab-Israeli relations was mediated by the student's feelings and experiences. (MM)

Describes how the author uses reading response journals in her composition classes. Shows how it actively engages students in the reading/writing process, and how students learn careful, active reading and develop confidence generating ideas and formulating opinions via the structure, freedom, enhanced comprehension, critical thinking, and…

When the author and her teaching colleague assessed their 7th and 8th grade students' research papers, they realized that although the papers demonstrated proper structure, the students had not gained meaningful understanding of their topics. Although the teachers had carefully prepared students to write, they had not ensured that students had…