Students in the elementary and secondary grades may use mathematics writing to express ideas and reasoning about mathematics. To understand current classroom practices related to the assessment and instruction of mathematics writing, we conducted a survey of kindergarten through Grade 12 educators across the United States who taught mathematics,…

Reading and writing are central to the conception of science and the work of scientists. While recent scholarship on science literacy suggests the benefits of integrating reading and writing in science teaching, less is known about the extent to which science teachers implement such integration. This naturalistic study examines two sixth-grade…

Writing, a critical pedagogical tool, cultivates student learning and fosters deeper understanding of the material. When frequent, low-stakes (informal) writing activities help students write more freely, engage with the material and thus become active learners. Looking at students who are at opposite ends of a community college spectrum, this…

A college education has never been so necessary, or so expensive. It is incumbent upon us, the educators, to do it the best we can. The products of our work are not the buildings on our campuses but our students who go out into this complicated and exciting world to serve as its leaders, its citizens, and its workers. The Bates College general…

It is important to find the means by which struggling writers can find success in the English Language Arts. For students struggling with reading and writing, the visual arts may be a way of accessing and expressing their ideas and ultimately opening up a world of creative possibilities. This article explores drawing and painting as a pre-writing…

Introduces three terms--synapsis, synesthesia, and synergy--applied to writing instruction as heuristic concepts. Describes classroom exercises, such as removing transitions from an essay and asking students to restore synaptic life to the paragraphs, viewing painting masterpieces to find analogous aesthetic concepts in written composition, and…

Describes a method for incorporating writing into the basic mathematics program using personal math journals composed of a graph showing the number of hours devoted daily to math homework, a record of test grades, and at least one paragraph about the student's math experiences or another math-related topic. (AYC)

Included herein is the conference proceedings of the 27th Annual Conference on the Teaching of Psychology: Ideas and Innovations, sponsored by the Psychology Department of the State University of New York at Farmingdale. The conference theme for 2013 was: The Science of Learning. The Conference featured a keynote address by Victor Benassi, Ph.D.…

Suggests teaching elementary students to type by providing a typing learning station and one 30-minute lesson each week. Includes ideas for relating typing to other curriculum areas such as punctuation, spelling, and writing. (SJL)

Identifies three characteristics of writing programs that appear to facilitate the writing process: (1) teacher characteristics such as patience and understanding interest; (2) supporting, flexible, and organized classroom environment; and (3) varied, interesting, and relevant learning opportunities. Provides examples from classrooms in Great…

A study was conducted to determine whether subject-related writing tasks assigned in college courses (1) increased the amounts and clarity of student learning, (2) led to improved student writing performance, and (3) changed levels of student apprehension about writing. Students enrolled in two sections of courses taught by each of four…

Describes learning activities that promote the teaching of reading and writing together within the context of basal materials. Presents an example of how these activities were used in a second-grade classroom. (FL)

The article describes use of storytelling activities integrated with reading and writing instruction for gifted students. Values of the approach include the real-life focus (students interviewed community adults); open-endedness (independent work was encouraged); task commitment; and skill enhancement in research, organization, and writing. (DB)

Seeking to involve students more actively in their writing assignments, two teachers developed a group of sequential writing assignments with an interdisciplinary emphasis for students in an advanced writing course. The goal of these writing assignments was to give students who had solved most of their mechanical writing problems a chance to…

Uses boxes, bottles, bags, brochures, and other print materials to create more interesting and more effective whole language lessons. (MG)