Study examined the impact of word processing on sixth graders' writing and revision skills. Students used pencil and paper or word processors, or both, to write and revise compositions. There were significant revision differences. Word processing students corrected more and made fewer errors. Overall writing quality did not differ significantly.…

Reviews the literature on grammar instruction in English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) classes, highlighting the concerns of ESL students in communicating ideas in written English and the way in which overconcern with grammatical precision can impede the flow of ideas. Concludes that contextualization is the most effective pedagogy. (DMM)

This article provides specific recommendations for teaching students with learning disabilities how to use a story grammar cueing system for improving writing. The article emphasizes the importance of individualizing instruction and teaching for generalization, and discusses the purpose of the system and methods of assessment. (JDD)

Describes how teachers can invite children into literacy and writing by the practice of writing with the children themselves, thus showing children how they themselves learned to write and how to learn from making mistakes. (BB)

Asserts that role-playing peer-response groups provide effective feedback and help students develop a sense of the characteristics of a particular audience. Illustrates with a sample lesson (a college application essay) by outlining five steps of the process. Offers other uses of the role-playing peer-response groups method. (PRA)

Details strategies for applying writing research and theories to the college basic writing classroom. Encourages instruction focusing on the complete writing process and on meaning rather than linguistic structure. Offers guidelines for creating a process-centered classroom and holding effective writing conferences with students. (PAA)

Examines research on the causes of writing apprehension. Profiles high-apprehensive writers, characterizes their written products, and describes their writing processes. Suggests four procedures for dealing with writing apprehension: peer group workshops; positive reinforcement; teaching about writing process, and gradually increasing students'…

Focuses on releasing students' creative impulses, their imaginations, and their memories. Discusses a set of reading and writing activities that have been used with all kinds of students in a wide variety of settings. (RS)

Describes as a prewriting strategy the use of seventh-grade language-arts student and teacher story telling about "guilt trips" played by parents and teens. Maintains that this is a useful prewriting strategy often neglected as teachers move to a process-oriented instructional model. Describes pitfalls to the verbal prewriting strategy. (KB)

This article offers guidelines to help young children who are deaf move through six developmental stages of learning to write: (1) observing writing; (2) scribbling and drawing; (3) communicating writing to others; (4) requesting assistance in writing; (5) copying writing; and (6) beginning to write independently. (DB)

Writing is a powerful social tool that offers students opportunities to chisel their identities as they position themselves and others on issues and beliefs (Dyson, 1992). This article presents the story of how Mark, a fifth-grade student who resisted writing in certain classroom contexts, used positional writing practices to shape his identities.…

"Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition"[R] ("CIRC") is a comprehensive reading and writing program for students in grades 2 through 8. It includes story-related activities, direct instruction in reading comprehension, and integrated reading and language arts activities. Pairs of students (grouped either by or across…

This book highlights ways in which science instruction benefits from the perspectives of teachers committed to whole language. The introductory chapter starts from a viewpoint outside the classroom and seeks to identify overall patterns while the remaining chapters build from experiences in individual classrooms. This book assumes that teachers…

For much of this century, text linguists have recognized that various tokens called "metadiscourse" may help explain how texts function. In linguistics, metadiscourse has a more concrete meaning than it typically does in composition: it refers to specific words, phrases, and clauses which are primarily intended to help the reader…

This paper discusses parody as an effective pedagogical device and as a way of teaching recognition of, and appreciation for, form. If the subject parodied is in poetic form, then rhyme and rhythm become factors for the parodist to consider. If the subject parodied is in prose, then the parodist must address the techniques of narrative,…