In the first year of operation, a high school computer writing lab boosted the percentage of freshman passing state-mandated writing tests from 55% to 77%. Two facilitators were employed in the lab and had five major responsibilities: (1) careful organization of the physical facility; (2) training teachers and students; (3) scheduling classes; (4)…

Traditional approaches to teaching writing have been challenged, and new methods have emerged that reflect the new understanding of this process. This paper compares and contrasts product-based and process-based approaches to teaching writing. Product approaches reflect traditional, teacher-centered approaches to teaching in general, emphasizing…

Intended for teaching assistants and non-writing specialists to whom students come for help in preparing assigned writing papers, this guide suggests questions and comments to ask such students to help them clarify what is happening, or not happening, in their writing, and in the thinking which this writing reveals. The guide roughly parallels…

The result of a year of research and development in the classroom, the language arts activities presented in this handbook are designed for use with microcomputers in elementary and junior high classrooms. The first chapter reviews the current uses of microcomputers in the classroom and identifies the problems associated with the prevailing…

The first section of this report lists a variety of advantages and disadvantages of educational applications of Local Area Networks (LANs), with descriptive and evaluative comments on how the Union County Computers in the Curricula Network Project (Cranford, New Jersey) dealt with each. The second section of the report describes the following…

Two studies evaluated a comprehensive cooperative learning approach to elementary reading and writing instruction, called Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition (CIRC). The subjects in the first study, 461 third- and fourth-grade students in a suburban Maryland school district, were divided into experimental and control groups, with the…

This action research study examined what writing strategy, process writing approach, free, or informal writing, was the most effective with students with learning disabilities. Five students (ages 13-15) in a self-contained eighth grade language arts class were observed while they learned the three different writing strategies. The process writing…

Describes an American fourth grade classroom from the perspective of a doctoral student from the People's Republic of China. Notes greater equality among student, teacher, and textbook in the American classroom than in the hierarchical Chinese educational system. Observes that, in their writing efforts, the American students display both…

Describes a research project designed to evaluate the adoption of process writing by secondary English teachers in Hong Kong. A range of attitudes is identified among the participants. The teachers' profile suggests that they can be assisted in actualizing the necessary conditions for implementing the process approach by provision of suitable…

Investigates preservice teachers' attitudes toward writing and toward teaching writing after completing an innovative language-arts course that stressed process approaches and the writing workshop. Examines the influence this course had on the teaching of writing during their student teaching. Investigates how writing instruction was incorporated…

An action research project addressed the problem of inadequate student knowledge of writing strategies and students' negative attitudes toward the writing process. The targeted population consisted of early childhood, first grade, and third grade students in two growing, lower/middle class communities located in the western suburbs of a large…

Implementing numerous changes and deletions from the fourth edition, the fifth edition of this book aims to balance an emergent, social development environment with a sharper awareness of children who have missed out on much of the natural literacy development teachers would so much like to enhance. All chapters in the book have been updated with…

A study at Hong Kong University explored the use of the word processor as a writing tool in enhancing a process approach to writing instruction and the effect it has on writing performance, student attitudes to writing and revising, and the process by which students revise their scripts. A comparative analysis was done on a control group of 13…

Combining the expansion of cultural literacy with the development of process-based writing, this book addresses each stage of the writing process, with emphasis on the recursive and overlapping nature of these stages. Numerous related model activities at the end of each chapter show how to develop the writing process, while expanding the writer's…

Process writing methods, which are well established in Canadian elementary and secondary schools, are introduced in this book for use with adult English as a Second Language (ESL) and adult basic education (ABE) classes. The book is the result of two research projects that investigated the feasibility of using a process approach to teaching…