Many students with learning disabilities (LD) struggle to develop text-writing fluency: the skill of accurately and efficiently composing multiple words into sentences and passages understandable to readers. In prior studies, researchers have used instructional assessments to control for task difficulty and identify precise areas of text-writing…

The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) Practice Guide, "Teaching Secondary Students to Write Effectively," offers educators three specific, evidence-based recommendations that address the challenges of teaching students in grades 6-12 to write effectively. This summary focuses on the third of the three recommendations: Use assessments of…

The think-aloud approach to classroom writing assessment is designed to expand teachers' perspectives on adolescent students as writers and help them integrate instruction and assessment in a timely way. Emphasizing learning over evaluation, it is especially well-suited to revealing students' strengths and helping them overcome common challenges…

This practical book provides explicit directions for teaching sentence-level skills to students who have difficulties in this area. The author explains the key role of sentence combining in the writing process and presents effective techniques for instruction and assessment. Numerous sample lessons, practice activities, planning tips, and…

Writing is a fundamental part of engaging in professional, social, community, and civic activities. Nearly 70 percent of salaried employees have at least some responsibility for writing, and the ability to write "well" is a critical component of being able to communicate effectively to a variety of audiences. Because writing is a…

As many teachers know, students may be adept at text messaging and communicating online but do not know how to craft a basic essay. In the classroom, students are increasingly required to create web-based or multi-media productions that also include writing. Since writing in and for the online realm often defies standard writing conventions, this…

The book introduces readers in the often-overlooked math-related fields to the ideas of writing-to-learn (WTL) and writing in the disciplines (WID). It offers a guide to the pedagogy of writing in the mathematical sciences, and gives theoretically grounded means by which writing can be used to help undergraduate students to understand mathematical…

Writing and the teaching of writing is changing at a rapid pace. How can educators understand writing assessment "as" and "with" technology in the 21st-century classroom? Michael Neal contends that new technologies are neither the problem nor the solution. Instead, educators need to tap into digital resources only inasmuch as they promote writing…

Many English language learners (ELLs) require extra support to become successful writers. This book helps teachers understand the unique needs of ELLs and promote their achievement by adapting the effective instructional methods they already know. Engaging and accessible, the book features standards-based lesson planning ideas, examples of student…

This book focuses on how to provide effective instruction to K-12 students who find writing challenging, including English language learners and those with learning disabilities or language impairments. Prominent experts illuminate the nature of writing difficulties and offer practical suggestions for building students' skills at the word,…

Presents four poems of the "self" (poems that represent authors' perceptions of themselves) by secondary school students. Discusses how to assess such poems and students' development in writing poems like them. (SR)

Advises teachers not to evaluate students on day-to-day growth, but instead to allow for measurable growth, evaluating them after a suitable period of time has elapsed. Assumes that true growth in writing occurs slowly, that it is seldom linear, and that distinctions between disparate texts remain spurious. (MS)

Shows how to assure fairness in grading essay exams by having students place a code number instead of their names on their essays. Notes that student reaction has been overwhelmingly positive. Argues that the approach can be used in a wide variety of educational circumstances. (RS)

Presents a primary-trait scoring instrument intended for journalism teachers to use in assessing students' editorials by breaking down the analysis into three essential components: claims, data, and warrants. Applies the instrument to two student essays. (SR)

Describes how to develop a computer critiquing system for student feedback, producing individualized student feedback from a preestablished master list of critical comments. Discusses developing the master feedback list, setting up the merge process, special applications of computerized responses, and assessing its advantages and disadvantages.…