We built a natural language processing (NLP) system implementing a "virtual writing conference" for elementary-school children, with German as the target language. Currently, state-of-the-art computer support for writing tasks is restricted to multiple-choice questions or quizzes because automatic parsing of the often ambiguous and fragmentary…

One indispensable task in the doctoral undertaking in the humanities and social sciences is that of reviewing the literature. To many graduate students, finding the "right" direction of reviewing is a particularly grueling experience, a practical concern seldom addressed in thesis manuals and studies of the doctoral thesis. This paper is an…

This document presents the proceedings of the 20th Annual Research Forum held June 25, 2015, at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Included are the following 21 action research papers: (1) History Lives! The Use of Simulations in a High School Social Studies Classroom (Lydia Adkins); (2) Using Francophone Music in the High…

This article briefly surveys the literature on ways that developmental writing students learn; reports on student learning style research carried out in developmental writing classrooms at Texas A&M University-Kingsville and Southwest Texas Junior College, using the "Productivity Environmental Preference Survey"; suggests specific…

The authors offer a comprehensive, innovative, and practical approach to teaching writing, focusing on engagement and interaction so students grapple with words and experiences to make meaning. Recent research supports its content and strategies while cognitive development and neurological theories, early literacy, inquiry, and writing as a mode…

In this article, the author first explains what an authors gallery is and suggests additional uses and modifications. Next, readers are taken through a day-by-day description of creating the gallery while having the theory behind this pedagogical choice explained. The step-by-step discussion is supported with student examples and concepts drawn…

This module provides paraeducators with awareness of strategies that can be used to help students become better writers. The NWREL 6 + 1 Trait[R] model is offered as an example of an approach that can be used to develop and assess student writing skills and enable paraeducators to assist teachers in the instruction of writing. Paraeducators will…

While writer's workshop provides a nurturing environment for many students, others struggle with the independence it gives. This may be due to the difficulty of coordinating the cognitive and self-regulatory demands of the writing process. Self-regulation refers to thoughts, feelings, and actions that individuals use to attain personal goals.…

Demonstrates the impracticality of imposing rigorous definitions on the various stages of the writing process and the ineffectiveness of requiring students to adhere to strict writing strategies. (SRT)

Discusses factors that interfere with students' effective use of heuristic procedures for invention in composition. (HTH)

Discusses the pedagogical consequences that follow from distinguishing invention from prewriting. Contrasts the importance of stasis in invention, and the resulting importance of writing with an audience in mind, with prewriting techniques that merely direct students toward exploring a topic without reference to an audience. (RL)

Reports on ERIC materials dealing with the improvement of writing instruction. (RL)

Describes ways to teach children to write poetry. Offers three approaches that do not work and several ways that do work. (PRA)

Suggests that the teaching of both composition and creative writing would benefit from focusing less exclusively on the writing process and products and more on the writing subject. Claims that focusing on the writing subject through the lens of psychoanalysis provides several potential benefits. Concludes psychoanalysis can be a filtrate for the…

Students are entering a workforce that demands competency in writing both for explicit communication through e-mail as well as in products in the company's day-to-day dealings. Strategies for teaching students to communicate in writing have been evaluated extensively in a face-to-face environment. Many of those successful strategies have been…