Given the focus of recent standards-based reforms, K-12 students are expected to engage in reading and writing activities across disciplines to strengthen their literacy skills in all content areas. These students are simultaneously called upon to develop understandings of the practices of science and engineering through their K-12 science…

Presents 18 writing stimulus ideas that are intended as jumping off points for student writing and are based on poems from "If I Were in Charge of the World (and other worries)" by Judith Viorst. Offers some general suggestions for using poems in the classroom. (SR)

Describes how "Gulliver's Travels" was used with 11- and 12-year-olds to stimulate writing activities. (SRT)

Results on a multiple choice vocabulary test and a final essay writing activity suggest that teaching vocabulary as a writing prompt was more successful than more traditional forms. (RAE)

Provides numerous ideas for helping students write about special memories in the following categories: growing up--future dreams; authors and illustrators; family history; special places; and special memories. Describes how to write a "bio poem," and includes a bibliography of children's books that enhance and enrich student learning and…

The writing across the curriculum program at La Salle University, Pennsylvania, derives its basic philosophy from Charles Bazerman's "The Informed Writer" which stresses that students learn about academic writing and reading in terms of a community of discourse. Though Bazerman's text is not used in the freshman composition course,…

Intended for those who want to teach composition primarily and centrally and not just as an adjunct to the study of literature, this book about the composing process provides continuing opportunities to put theory into practice. It consists of the following chapters: (1) "The Composing Process Is a Continuum"; (2) "Observing; Observing Your…

Designed to involve students directly and immediately in the process of intellectual inquiry by showing them that writing is a discovery process and by helping them in developing writing as a form of social dialogue, this book is organized to accentuate the dynamic, interactive character of the writing process. Chapter titles are: (1)…

Describes the kinds of difficulties experienced by less able writers and how content area teachers can help these writers produce better expository text. Provides writing activities that shift the writer's attention from language forms to language content. (SRT)

Describes "Plausible Stories," an activity which uses creative writing and story predictions to help teachers exploit the interactive nature of the processes of reading and writing. (MS)

Describes the Teachers and Writers Collaborative at P.S 49 and the principal who keeps the writing program going. Discusses how the collaboration works and the teaching techniques used by the writing teachers in the school. (MG)

Outlines the steps a college composition instructor can take to help students connect the idea relationships in a reading selection or in a writing assignment. The steps are based on a conceptual strategy known as semantic mapping or semantic networking. (SRT)

Suggests that students should consider five parts of the social environment for any writing/reading situation, especially considering social relationships forged there between writers and readers. Describes these five aspects, and argues that activities using computer technology and writing should focus students primarily on the social nature of…

In a required class on literature and composition at Eastern Illinois University, students learn about the short story by writing one of their own. Their stories then become the context for an introduction to literary terminology such as point of view, setting, and use of dialogue versus narration. Having just written their own stories, students…

In the belief that effective writing instruction can be a critical component in successful learning, and to better understand the role that writing plays in content area learning, this book presents an extensive study of writing assignments in the secondary school curriculum. Following an introduction, the book provides an overview of the project,…