Reflection is a necessary component of learning. Through reflective assignments and tasks, students are given opportunities to evaluate their learning and analyze strategies they use while acquiring and applying course material. Reflections also help students assess and think deeply about the information presented in class and thus better retain…

The coauthor of "Stack the Deck," a junior and senior high school composition program, discusses the program's philosophy and its implications for composition teachers and their students. (HTH)

Describes writing assignments that other teachers may wish to present in their classes on women's issues. (CRH)

By incorporating letters to the editor and other reader participation columns in print media into the content-focus of the course, composition teachers can bring to life the student's rhetorical situation, especially with respect to audience and purpose. Such reader-writing is especially effective when students analyze the texts for clues to the…

Sentence combining techniques can be used with basal readers to help students develop writing skills. The first technique is addition, characterized by using the connecting word "and" to join two or more base sentences together. The second technique is called "embedding," and is characterized by putting parts of two or more base sentences together…

This paper shows how to integrate reading comprehension instruction and writing instruction through the use of sentence combining--the act of combining several short sentences that have been derived by transformational analysis from longer ones. Suggestions are offered to guide teachers through the necessary steps for designing appropriate…

Describes opportunities and activities for a short unit on the yearbook inscription, one that contains information on cliches, anecdotes, persona, character development, and familiarizing students with various reference books. (RL)

Discusses alternatives to formal grammatical analysis to teach syntax and usage, including sentence combining, expansion, and modelling/imitation; transformation exercises; and inductive grammar. Considers ways of teaching editing/proofreading skills, including peer editing, teacher/student conferences, and selective marking of errors. Discusses…

This teachers' guide responds to some of the more frequently asked questions about teaching and evaluating from Kindergarten through Grade 5. The document is a synthesis of the current research on writing and applies this information to the teaching of writing in the classroom. It is comprehensive in nature and addresses such subjects as…

"Compupoem" is a program that helps students write poems, emphasizes process/product, and encourages divergent problem-solving. A description of the program, sample student session, and an example of a completed poem are provided. The Computers and Poetry Project which produces elementary/secondary-level, interactive poetry-writing…

Fourteen holistic, meaning-based reading and writing activities appropriate for students with learning disabilities are described, along with the theoretical background of the paradigm. As children experiment, approximate, and discover language naturally and socially, their immersion in authentic spoken and written language facilitates learning to…

The third in a series on content area writing instruction, this booklet is intended for high school teachers who have taught writing, but who want to move into content writing topics and for teachers who are novices at teaching writing but who think content writing instruction might be an important skill to teach their students. The three sections…

Intended for English teachers early in their careers and for teachers retraining to teach English, and applicable to English/language arts classrooms across all grade levels, this guide offers practices drawn from classroom experience and from writing project experience that implement a tenable, successful theory of learning to write. The…

The writing manual for a course in basic Pashto teaches the Pashto alphabet: the letters, their sounds, their names, and their shapes in various combinations with other letters. Each lesson, designed to take one class hour, consists of a presentation of the material to be learned, exercises using that material, exercises reviewing previously…

Developed by teachers and project staff members, this guide is designed to provide the opportunity for the practice and extension of basic skills in reading, writing, and language arts and to increase student and faculty knowledge of creative writing as an art. The strategies in the guide supply teachers with alternatives from which to select…