Describes an undergraduate business course in organizational behavior in which students participated in experiential learning exercises linked to classroom conceptual learning, then reflected on the experiences in a written synthesizing statement. Examples of students' insights are provided. Advantages and disadvantages of the approach and…

Describes how the author used research booklets to be read by sixth graders, poetry books, and taking part in a city-wide writing competition with her eighth-grade students to combat a general apathy in many students' writing efforts. Suggests the projects spoke to individual interests, helped students find a purpose to write, and improved the…

Discusses library-based assignments for information literacy and suggests the focus needs to change from information location to information use. Topics include online searching; reporting facts; more thoughtful research projects to develop skills; pitfalls of library assignments; and how to make information sources play a secondary role. (LRW)

Evaluated a peer assessment procedure to factor in the contributions of individual group members engaged in an integrated group project. Findings demonstrated that the method resulted in a substantially wider spread of marks being given to individual students; about one-third received a grade different from the grade the project as a whole would…

Describes the ramifications of a writing assignment for preservice teachers about their relationships with literature. Reports on several of the students' personal writings in response to the assignment. Presents responses of two teachers, Greg Hamilton and Deborah Kinder, about doing personal writing assignments. (PA)

Describes an activity called "Critical Analysis of Literature." Students read, think, debate, and write about controversial books, examining whether each novel should be included in the school curriculum. This teaches students to critically analyze information, develop an appreciation for literature, and develop a respect for thinking on their…

Universities are continually adding entrepreneurship courses to their curriculum. Duhaime and Hitt (2000) found 82% of schools offered entrepreneurship courses at the undergraduate level and 69% of masters programs had offerings in entrepreneurship. A much smaller number of programs offer courses that require that the students actually start the…

Despite multiple and persuasive arguments against the validity of doing so, many basic writers continue to be identified by what Brian V. Street calls the "autonomous model of literacy," a model that research tells us is as artificial and inappropriate as it is ubiquitous. This article describes a curricular response to the political,…

The question, "What were the causes of World War I?," has become one of the classic historical debates of which there seem to be endless permutations. In the past 90 years historians, journalists, and politicians have offered many more or less rational explanations for the war. Although at least some of the usual "causes"…

View Park Preparatory High School, a charter school serving low-income urban students in Los Angeles, makes critical thinking the center of its literacy curriculum. The school's literacy program has a single, measurable goal: By graduation, every student will be able to write a 500-word sustained argument free of mechanical error, reflecting his…

Applying reading and writing theory to cases in composition, this chapter troubleshoots assignments that produced disappointing results and illustrates how the model of the "ill-structured problem" can help writing instructors craft assignments that foster the cognitive and affective maturation essential to college-level literacy. (Contains 2…

This paper outlines a project that provides a framework for engaging students in current events in such a way that they develop and improve critical sociological thinking through regular and structured writing assignments. Though this paper describes a news-analysis project that is similar to many that have been used in sociology classrooms both…

The Internet has changed the ways that students think, learn, and write. Students have large amounts of information, largely anonymous and without clear copyright information, literally at their fingertips. Without sufficient guidance, the inappropriate use of this information seems inevitable. Plagiarism among college students is rising, due to…

This article is an exploration of how the new early American cultural history can be employed in the first half of the standard American history survey. The author discovered that the New Cultural History can be an outstanding tool by which to introduce a highly culturally diverse student population to the multiracial, multicultural, and…

A credit-rated tandem course unit has been running at the University of Manchester for the past six years and an element of peer assessment has always been present in the assessment procedure. Unfortunately, the course leaders found that this element was not entirely satisfactory. Although there were clear criteria in the course documentation for…