This article approaches written argumentation as a concept of promoting geographical literacy. It is argued that student-centered peer feedback is an effective method with which to improve individual students' argumentative texts. This research uses a case-study design, which analyzed how high school students in different pairs improve their…

Implementing an integrated sequence of concrete-representational-abstract depictions of mathematics concepts (CRA-I) can improve the mathematics achievement of students with disabilities, and explicit instructional strategies involving problem-solving heuristics and student verbalizations can help facilitate students' conceptual understanding of…

Education in science and engineering should develop students' ability to read and write domain-specific texts (NRC 2012). Unfortunately, "science teachers are not generally well prepared to help their students penetrate the linguistic puzzles that science texts present" (Snow 2010, p. 452). Thus, Juanita Boliha (a biology teacher) and…

The "college readiness" movement of the past decade coupled with the widespread adoption of Common Core State Standards (CCSS) has generated pressure on content area teachers to develop disciplinary thinking skills while also providing more opportunities for student writing. The purpose of this three-article dissertation is to understand…

Kentucky has been a leader in the movement to more rigorous college and career ready standards to support their students' success in the 21st century. Kentucky was the first state to adopt new college and career ready standards (CCRS)--termed the Kentucky Core Academic Standards. Many of Kentucky's districts have moved proactively and…

This article presents a story about eighty-six ninth-grade World History and Geography students who authored a "how-to" book, while pretending that they were experts who lived in the past and had to explain how to do something relating to that time period. These students attended a large high school in the Midwest; the school's…

This study investigates the effects of the Science Writing Heuristic (SWH), known as an argumentation-based science inquiry approach, on Grade 9 students' performance on a post-test in relation to their academic achievement levels. Four intact classes taught by 2 chemistry teachers from a Turkish public high school were selected for the study; one…

To teach science writing effectively, scholars encourage combining writing to learn with applications of the science writing heuristic. How teachers learn to do so remains under-examined. This essay follows a cohort of ninth-grade science teachers who collaborated in a project to develop, test, and revise such a combination of writing prompts for…

Many teachers find it difficult to encourage their students to write in class, yet writing is becoming increasingly important in academic and workplace settings. Students are already writing through cell phone texting, gaming systems, and social networking sites every day, but these resources go largely untapped in many English language arts…

Writing-to-learn activities in science classrooms can have an impact on student learning. This study sought to examine if the audience for which students write explanations of biology concepts affects their understanding of these concepts. One hundred eighteen Year 9/10 biology students from four classes participated in the study. There were four…

Middle school history teachers confront the same challenge every day: how to convey the breadth and depth of a curriculum that spans centuries, countries, and cultures. In "Making History Mine", Sarah Cooper shows teachers how to use thematic instruction to link skills to content knowledge. By combining thought-provoking activities and rich…

This report offers a number of specific teaching techniques that research suggests will help 4th- to 12th-grade students in this nation's schools. The report focuses on all students, not just those who display writing difficulties, although this latter group is deservedly the focus of much attention. The premise of this report is that all students…