Writing is a core school readiness skill, yet preschools typically provide children with limited writing opportunities. To consider how curricular materials guide writing instruction, the five most common Head Start curricula were systematically examined in accordance with the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework. Curricula were coded…

This dissertation study examines new strategies for building a critical, liberatory curriculum in Developmental Writing (DW) courses. It addresses the research question: "What benefits will students demonstrate and describe when experiencing a critical asset-based curriculum, and what would a specific course lesson look like that reflects…

The purpose of this report is to provide data on the progress of the Handwriting Implementation Project, which is designed to assist in installing the Beginner's Alphabet and Queensland Modern Cursive Script in Queensland government primary schools. Following an introduction that describes the phases and processes of curriculum development and…

Traces 25 years of freshman composition courses, highlighting "the expulsion of literature from the Garden of Composition,""the diluting of intellectual expectations and of the principles upon which programs were established," today's better management and writing teachers, and personal changes in instruction. Offers reflections on the future of…

The "expressivists" in composition philosophy have seized upon reader-response criticism for its potential in the literature-based composition class. The literature-based course in composition falls into three main models: (1) a literary approach in which the focus is on literature with compositions to be written on the side; (2) a…

Proposes an alternative pedagogy and curriculum to one implied by the text, "Ways of Reading," which provides a set of difficult, theoretical texts for writing classes. Suggests that teachers should learn something of the student's world as the student learns of the teacher's. (TB)

Examines a set of problems presented by the rapid growth of composition programs, including the apprehension many graduate students feel about the future. Argues that "professional development" ought to live at the center of a program, and that programs need to learn how to be accountable to students. (TB)

Demonstrates how portfolios can be used to motivate students, promote learning through reflection and self-assessment, evaluate and change curriculum, replace or validate tests, and evaluate student writing processes, among other things. Describes the experiences of students at a junior high school and two high schools in California, and draws…

Relates the evaluation of a secondary school writing program that concentrated on three areas: (1) the level of group participation and group feeling generated in the classroom, (2) the level of security felt by students and teacher within the process approach, and (3) the linking of the students' reading and writing. (HOD)

Her Majesty's Inspectors (HMI) inspected the teaching of literacy and mathematics in the reception year in a sample of 129 schools between autumn 2000 and summer 2001. Most of the schools were designated as primary, teaching children from the age of four or five to eleven. A few schools had nursery classes or units attached to them. In half the…

Reviews important works concerning the teaching of literature and writing in order to provide insights to serve as catalysts for reconsidering current literature and writing curricula. (JL)

Describes one teacher's experience of teaching composition theory on the graduate level at a Canadian university. Explains that there are only two rhetoric and composition programs in Canada and that, generally, Canadian universities have been slow to make the transition from neocolonialism to postcolonialism. (TB)

Describes the writing program at Pepperdine University, where some of the composition sections incorporate a service learning component. Makes a case for service learning as a productive space in a composition course. (TB)

A program for the 1982-83 year at Rensselaer Central High School (Indiana) includes procedures for integrating college needs and expectations with those of high school, establishing an inservice program for involving teachers in an "across-the-curriculum" writing program, and proposing a course of study for the school's college…

Presents reminiscences of a former editor of "English Education," discussing English teacher education during the 1970s and some of the difficult transitional moments during that era. Discusses methods courses, changes in the curriculum, and outside critics of English education. (TB)