The six-sentence argument (6SA) is an exercise to train critical thinking skills. Faced with a decision situation, students argue for their preferred course of action using a logical structure of exactly six sentences. Through a guided peer review, students engage critically with other students' arguments and receive detailed feedback on their own…

Taking advantage of a university-wide initiative that requires all students during their course of study to take at least one of their writing intensive classes in their major, the author relates how he was spurred to formulate one of his graphic design studio classes to accommodate the writing-intensive requirement. He had been intuitively…

Provides activities for teaching the skill of comparison using various parts of newspapers. (SRT)

Provides ideas on how to use the Bayeux Tapestry as an inspiration for writing in the areas of art, communications, English and the language arts, history and social studies, home economics, physical education and health, psychology, and science and mathematics. (SRT)

Offers a rationale and guidelines for modifying the recommendation report to include speaking, listening, and writing assignments. (HTH)

Argues that grammar instruction can be more effective if put in a realistic context by: (1) becoming part of an integrated curriculum; and (2) concentrating on the proofreading stage of writing assignments. Illustrates integrating various components of the language-arts curriculum by briefly describing a unit using a short story. (RS)

Notes that the ability to move from the general to the specific and back again is one of the schemas that basic writers lack. Argues that this schema can be developed through carefully composed writing assignments that employ all of the arts of language--reading, writing, speaking, and listening. (RS)

An understanding of an author's structure of ideas assists readers in comprehending a text. Three kinds of writing activities relate to a reading comprehension subskill. (1) sequencing--the logical presentation of events, times, places, ideas or steps in a procedure to accomplish a task or to comprehend an event--for which a teaching progression…

A program of written composition based on reading comprehension can help students gain greater in-depth understanding of reading materials. Once the reading comprehension skill has been clearly defined for the class, the writing activity can provide clarification by allowing for analysis of the definition through written manipulation of language.…

Writing across the curriculum, or "writing-as-learning" (WAL), represents one of the most successful developments in writing instruction. WAL is an efficient teaching method for achieving educational goals in today's society because it effectively engages students in both the means and the ends of their education. Research has shown that…

Presents a descriptive exercise, also useful for technical writing, that provides a real reader and a strong sense of the nature of descriptive writing. Students are given sketches of an art piece that they must describe for a museum for identification. (HTH)

Describes a sequence of writing exercises that synthesizes current work on expressive discourse, learning theory, and classical exercises of the kind that are represented in Quintilian's progymnasmata. (HOD)

Uses Yeats's poem "Father and Child" to help high school students understand the technical elements that go into a poem and to help English methods students understand what is meant by an integrated lesson in language, literature, and composition. (HTH)

Describes an assignment designed to integrate students' opinions about literary works with those of the instructor and other critics. Students regularly write collaborative responses in small groups, before class discussion of the work, then engage in peer evaluation and revision before pesenting it to the class. (HTH)

Having students adapt a play from a strongly dramatic short story through the composing process is a natural and powerful way to integrate the language arts. Using dramatic activities in the classroom naturally leads to two kinds of language activities: receptive (listening and observing), and active (discussing, reading, writing, and presenting).…