The purpose of this study is to contribute to the existing literature on the foreign language learning of students with LLDs by conducting a comprehensive investigation of the performance of three students in middle school foreign language classes in a suburban school district in southwestern Pennsylvania. More specifically, this study documents…

This paper undertakes a review of the literature on writing cognition, writing instruction, and writing assessment with the goal of developing a framework and competency model for a new approach to writing assessment. The model developed is part of the Cognitively Based Assessments of, for, and as Learning (CBAL) initiative, an ongoing research…

There are three distinct ways that the metaphor of "clarity" is employed in rhetorical history and in daily interchanges, correlating to three ways of looking at language, in turn correlating to three approaches to teaching writing. What is being proposed is more of a taxonomy than a pedagogy, but this taxonomy is important because of…

The purpose of this document is to provide administrators, teachers, and students with samples of students' writing that exemplify the criteria used to score students' written responses on the June 1993 Grade 3 Language Learning Achievement Test and the written component of the performance assessment administered to a provincial sample of grade 3…

Developed from actual classroom need and field-tested with primary teachers across the country, this how-to book presents the "nuts and bolts" of how to implement a writing program that turns kids on to writing. Throughout the book, three teachers share vignettes about writing sessions in their classrooms. After an introduction and…

A study examined the concerns of five third-grade teachers over the first year of implementation of a district mandate to evaluate narrative writing using holistic scoring. Each teacher collected writing samples from six representative students. Teachers reported their responses throughout the year on two self-report instruments, and they were…

This report contains the results of a survey designed to gather information on issues and concerns in portfolio assessment and on the use of such types of assessment to determine student performance and program or teaching effectiveness. The survey, which contained nine questions, was conducted in three phases. First, the testing directors of each…

In the 1991-92 school year, the Ontario (Canada) Ministry of Education conducted a province-wide writing review of Grade 12 students. The purpose was to provide public accountability at the school board and provincial levels, by gathering information on school program implementation and student achievement in English. Results of this survey,…

This handbook is one of a series developed by the Texas Education Agency in response to requests to provide schools with additional information concerning the written composition portion of the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS). The handbook focuses on exit level grades 9 through 12. Following an introduction, the handbook is in two…

A high school English teacher found that one easy way to keep the idea of positive reinforcement foremost in her mind when she works with students was to use writing portfolios. A Portfolio Assessment project was designed in which portfolios were used in two sophomore and two junior regular English classes. A flexible plan was developed for using…

Educators are expressing the pros and cons of portfolio programs and their assessment. Teachers should be among the policy makers, and teacher-training institutions should bear their share of preparing teachers in all aspects of portfolio programs, including testing. Decade after decade, in both elementary and secondary education, students'…

Anecdotal testimony indicates that grade deflation is encouraged in many colleges and universities, especially in freshman writing courses. As a result, grading down has become a point of pride for some writing instructors. Instead of earning reputations as good, caring, committed teachers whose students do well because the teachers have worked…

This pilot project had four goals: (1) to develop a writing rubric with kindergartners; (2) to have students write to a prompt and record observed behaviors for analysis; (3) to better understand the appropriateness of using a writing rubric with kindergartners; and (4) to form more effective ways for students to be more autonomous in their…

At the intersection of teaching and learning, this guide is intended to introduce and update disciplinary faculty on contemporary writing principles and pedagogy. In addition, it is designed to: alert faculty to the ways in which effective writing helps students not only show what they have learned but also to learn, generate, and communicate…

The objectives of this study were to determine whether student writing portfolios could be rated reliably by trained judges; study the effects on student ratings of the differential leniency of the judges; and ascertain the effects of writing-prompt difficulty and its interactions with rater leniency. Writing samples from 127 students in grades 3,…