This article recounts some of the motivations, hurdles, and successes the Cuyamaca ESL Department in San Diego encountered while transforming its curriculum to an accelerated model. The college discovered that the new program, while challenging, increased the success and rate of passing among its language learners and improved the quality of their…

Developing and implementing curriculum that is relevant, challenging, integrative, and exploratory is central to successful middle grades education (Erb, 2005; Jackson & Davis, 2000; National Middle School Association [NMSA], 2003, 2010). However, as one language arts teacher suggests, it can be difficult to create curricula that meet these…

This document describes the development of the language skills subprogram of the Hawaii English Program--Secondary. After considering various theories of instructional strategies in language, the team developed a pair of complementary subprograms: a part-to-whole skills lab for building up students' stocks of language options and a whole-to-part…

This report of the writing project at P.K. Yonge Laboratory School, University of Florida, examines the effectiveness of a systematic approach to teaching high school composition. The approach, which focuses on the skills that enable students to write clearly, correctly, and purposefully, includes sequential instructional units, considerable…

The purpose of the Central Atlantic Regional Educational Laboratory (CAREL) literature program was to encourage pupils' imaginative and expressive power and to improve their ability to use language effectively. The curriculum was designed for 3- to 8-year-olds who represented a wide socioeconomic background. Specialists trained teachers to relate…

The basic components of the basic writing program at Rutgers University, designed to prepare disadvantaged students for the core course in English, are a combination of reading and writing activities with as much individualized instruction as possible. The components include three courses, a learning center, and an annual workshop in the teaching…

Individualization in freshman composition is necessitated not only by the individual differences of students but also by their varying writing competencies. (Editor)

The broad context of curriculum planning, staff development, and administrative decision making is the focus of this handbook for developing school writing programs. The guidelines and activities included in this handbook are meant to be suggestive; the ideas presented in this handbook will, in most cases, need to be shaped to suit the…

A model designed to aid faculty in course development and revision is presented and discussed as it operates at the Community College of Philadelphia. Several guiding principles of instructional development are presented, stressing the importance of a positive approach and the view of instructional development as a mode of communication between…

The Pima County Adult Education project undertook a demonstration project to provide English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) instruction to students with little or few reading skills. The project's objectives were to: enroll at least 20 students; provide 3 hours of literacy instruction weekly for at least 12 weeks in each of 2 sessions; document…

A report on implementation of the Multicultural Reading and Thinking (McRAT) Program in Arkansas from 1989-92 chronicles the program's development, operation, and results. McRAT is a staff development program designed to help teachers infuse higher order thinking processes and multicultural concepts into regular classroom curricula (grades 3 to…

Designed to assist program planners and administrators at community colleges in initiating a Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) program or determining the future direction of one already in existence, this sourcebook provides 15 articles on various aspects of WAC theory and practice. The following articles are included: (1) "History of WAC and…