The Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction (ARCS) model provides a basis for integrating motivational dynamics and technological affordances into the design and implementation of instructions to maintain learner motivation and interest. Little attention has been paid to this potential in teaching the complex and often demotivating…

We conducted a skills analysis on written expression curriculum-based measurement (WE-CBM) tasks completed by 117 second-grade students. As part of the skills analysis, we scored two WE-CBM tasks (i.e., narrative and expository) for correct and incorrect writing sequences, common writing errors, and sentence structures. Although a majority of…

This study investigated the effect of wiki-mediated collaborative writing on the development of learners' individual writing in a second language (L2). Participants were 52 learners of English as a foreign language enrolled in two intact junior writing classes at a Taiwanese university. One class was assigned to be a wiki-collaborative writing…

This study helped the researchers to determine if blogging as a revision strategy in a second grade classroom was beneficial. Nineteen second grade students wrote expository essays and made revisions and edits based on peer feedback in a blogging environment. Six elementary school teachers independently rated the students' writing samples using…

Approaching peer review from a process and contextualized perspective, this exploratory case study investigates two Chinese EFL learners' decision-making patterns while evaluating peers' texts in an online peer review and factors influencing these patterns. Detailed qualitative case study data were collected through think-aloud protocols,…

Expository hypertexts may contain specific types of signals such as navigable topical overviews and hyperlinks that map conceptual relationships between text contents. Two experiments with German university students (N = 130, 75% female, mean age 25 years) were conducted to test the hypothesis that hypertext-specific signals particularly support…

This paper undertakes a review of the literature on writing cognition, writing instruction, and writing assessment with the goal of developing a framework and competency model for a new approach to writing assessment. The model developed is part of the Cognitively Based Assessments of, for, and as Learning (CBAL) initiative, an ongoing research…

Describes the use of small writing groups in an advanced expository writing class and why the approach works. Includes a course syllabus. (HTH)

This article describes how one U.S. school district created a planned writing curriculum to provide strong, cohesive instruction for all students. Because of teacher preferences, some children received little instruction in expository writing, and scores on the state writing assessment fluctuated widely. The authors focus on how all teachers came…

This guidebook was developed by a team of elementary and secondary school English teachers to help teachers of all subjects with the difficult tasks of evaluating students' expository writing and stimulating student growth in the art and craft of writing. The twelve parts of the guidebook deal with the following topics: guidelines for giving a…

Presents various teacher-tested instructional techniques: (l) using counselors to aid teachers in basic writing courses, (2) training writing teachers using the process method, (3) teaching proofreading skills (4) using imitation in literature classes (5) using lists and imaginary dialogue to supplement conventional journal writing assignments,…

Attempting to place in an American context many of the ideas about the teaching of writing that were first developed in England, this book contains contributions from internationally prominent teachers/scholars who attended the New York University-CBS Sunrise Semester course on learning to write and writing to learn. The text also reflects the…

To help committed student writers make the transition from school-sponsored to self-sponsored forms of discourse, an advanced expository writing course combines student-chosen writing assignments with a pedagogical structure that promotes a sensitive and critical response to prose. The class is organized into writing groups containing four or five…

In Sweden the International Association Evaluation of Educational Achievement in written composition study involved 4,500 students from grades 6 and 9, as well as students from the terminal grades of the upper secondary school. Students wrote essays of various kinds and replied to questionnaires. Essays were evaluated according to content,…

Intended for college faculty in all disciplines, this guidebook offers practical methods and ideas intended to help teachers clarify writing assignments so that students' writing will improve, as has been seen to happen when teachers sharpen their responses to students' papers. Contents include: (1) "Assigning Writing," which describes…