Reflection is a necessary component of learning. Through reflective assignments and tasks, students are given opportunities to evaluate their learning and analyze strategies they use while acquiring and applying course material. Reflections also help students assess and think deeply about the information presented in class and thus better retain…

One of the best ways to enrich students' social studies experience is to include assignments in which students interact with social studies content and skills. In this article, the author explains how teachers can use writing exercises to encourage such interaction. She describes the following writing activities: (1) acrostics; (2) haiku; (3)…

Helping first graders develop writing skills is the focus of this paper. The first part of the paper discusses 11 ideas likely to be crucial to any first grade writing program, such as the similarities between learning to talk and writing, and the teacher as the model writer. The second part of the paper outlines creative writing activities…

Describes research, practice, and resources for giving students writing activities in several rhetorical contexts and to various audiences. (RL)

This workbook is focused on helping students learn how to use the newspaper as reading material. The workbook contains 26 lessons with short word lists at the beginning of each lesson and exercises which utilize the words from the word lists. The guide also includes five self-check exercises. (MS)

Seeking to involve students more actively in their writing assignments, two teachers developed a group of sequential writing assignments with an interdisciplinary emphasis for students in an advanced writing course. The goal of these writing assignments was to give students who had solved most of their mechanical writing problems a chance to…

Argues in favor of teaching thesis and the forms of exposition by means of assignments such as personal narrative, autobiography, and observation out of direct experience. Describes one such assignment. (RL)

The writing assignments developed for a course in expository writing intended for gifted eighth grade students are described in this paper. The first assignment described is a causal analysis essay that required the students to examine events from their lives or from newspaper articles and analyze the causes of the actions involved. The paper…

This Spanish-language document consists of four single-sheet sets of guidelines developed by the Family Involvement Partnership for Learning to assist parents in facilitating their children's elementary school success. The front part of the sheets describes general ways parents can support their children, including modeling writing, reading aloud,…

Literacy strategies useful in the adult education classroom were presented at a faculty professional development workshop. Literacy was described as a two-part process that included receptive (involving listening and reading) and expressive (involving speaking and writing). Content area was described as the focus of adult education literacy with…