Examples of types of writing activities, including skill-drill, story pieces, scenario writing, and a letter to the editor, for use in secondary world history classes, are presented. A social studies writing model is also included. (RM)

Sentence combining can teach students one of the most difficult aspects of the writing process--how to construct effective, versatile sentences. In sentence combining exercises, students take a series of short sentences and combine them into a longer and more elaborate sentence in such a way that the important information from each short sentence…

The instructor of two twelfth grade English classes, one a composition class and the other a general English class, gave both classes some exercises in sentence combining. In the first exercise, the students were given two sentences and told to devise as many combinations as possible. While the composition class contributed more combinations than…

Intended to give basic students simultaneous practice in reading and writing with an emphasis on accuracy, conciseness, and precision, the "finding the beef" method centers itself on summaries of news events. The first step of the method is to supply students with the appropriate data blocks based on news events, preferably those…

A sequential series of writing assignments designed and tested for a tenth grade writing workshop through the cooperative efforts of college and technical high school English teachers is discussed in this paper. Twelve assignments and their underlying educational theories are explained. The first six assignments are described as progressive and…

Class activities for developing Spanish proficiency in third- and fourth-year high school students and first- and second-year college students are presented. Activities include a discussion of teaching for proficiency, drawing on recent research, and notes on the design and intent of the activities. Sample exercises for listening comprehension…

This paper discusses the similarities and differences between teaching composition to native speakers and to speakers of English as a second language (ESL). The concepts, strategies and conclusions are applicable to learners of any second language. Basically, the point is that the conceptual function of language, that language is self-expression,…

Reading, writing, speech assignments for special education classes, English as a second language and many other classroom projects can be taught through the involvement created by Readers Theatre. Readers Theatre is the presentation of dialogue-type material in play form. The actors hold the script as they move through it and a narrator's voice…

A discussion of the communicative approach in the second language classroom reasserts its value while highlighting some of the difficulties in implementing the approach: time constraints; difficulty in providing motivation for communication in the more formal language registers; potential imbalance in emphasis on oral and written communication…

This manual is designed to provide practical assistance to teachers in Contemporary Issues in Science programs. The manual, divided into five sections, includes activities designed to help students develop skills in reading, writing, speaking, listening, research, and critical thinking. Provided in section 1 (source selection) is a teaching unit…