Shows how a school writing program based on the National Writing Project model can be presented in the framework of a simple accountability system devised by Leon Lessinger. (FL)

Reports on the positive outcomes that resulted from implementing a competency program in writing at a high school. (RL)

Suggests that a successful composition inservice program revolves around four components--theory/knowledge, categories or schema, teacher attitudes, and teacher behavior. Concludes that as teachers acquire knowledge of categories, and as they change attitudes toward self-assessing and revising, they change their behavior. (FL)

An individualized program for teaching writing skills was initiated for high school students in a writing laboratory program. The major goal was to develop a systematic, individualized approach for teaching 300 specific writing skills. Major characteristics of the program included evaluation of student writing to diagnose and prescribe…

The Language Arts Supervisor of the Des Moines, Iowa Independent Community School District is responsible for supervising and coordinating all aspects of the middle and high school language arts program. Aspects of the program include curriculum development, instructional material selection and implementation, staff development, evaluation, and…

Prepared as part of the evaluation of the Bay Area Writing Project (BAWP), this report offers descriptions of promising practices in composition instruction. It explains the selection criteria and classification scheme used and describes practices in the following four categories: (1) structuring of writing programs, (2) teaching the elements of…

Evaluates a summer writing workshop and thanks the director and the state governor for initiating it. (NKA)

Three writing projects in the state of Oregon, each of which uses a different approach to the teaching of writing, are described in this report. The first section of the report deals with the Coos County ESD Composition Improvement Project, which focuses on writing as a three-step process involving prewriting, writing, and postwriting. The section…

As part of the evaluation of the Bay Area Writing Project (BAWP), two field studies were conducted to analayze the effects of BAWP training at the school district level. In one field study, three school districts were examined to explore the conditions and context for BAWP training and to identify the resulting impact on school district programs.…

This overview of the Bay Area Writing Project (BAWP) discusses the initiation and development of BAWP, the proliferation of programs based on the Bay Area model, and the establishment of the National Writing Project (NWP). The basis for BAWP is described as the recognition that there are outstanding teachers of writing in the schools and that…

A case study examined the implementation of a schoolwide writing program established in a California middle school through a district sponsored school improvement program (SIP). Conducted at an urban sprawl southern California school of approximately 900 students in grades seven and eight, the program was directed and implemented by the English…

Thinking through Writing (TTW) was a project to develop, test, and disseminate a program for teaching thinking and writing skills in secondary school English and social studies courses. Each of the 12 schools participating in the project scheduled a group of students to take an English and a social studies course in the program, and two teachers…

In 1979, the typical entering seventh grade student at Perris Valley Junior High School (California) scored 21 months below grade norm in reading and 25 months below grade norm in language. To provide the students with language processing skills necessary for participation in the regular school curriculum, students in both junior and senior high…

To evaluate composition programs based on peer feedback, a study compared the improvement in written composition skills of two sets of eighth grade students in 11 classes at eight Dutch schools. The control group was enrolled in teacher feedback programs, the experimental group was enrolled in peer feedback programs. Students wrote a discursive…

The American Library Association's Carroll Preston Baber Research Award supported this project on the use, impact and feasibility of a computer assisted writing facility located in the library of Stetson Middle School in Philadelphia, an inner city school with a population of minority, "at risk" students. The writing facility consisted…