It can be very difficult for writers to invent classroom communities, to share their writing; it can be especially difficult for anxious young writers who have never before worked in peer groups. Student participation is largely influenced by gender roles shaped by years of socialization. Teachers should not be startled by less female…

In recent years there has been a growth in demand for undergraduate creative writing courses, but it is striking how unprepared students are for such courses. Many undergraduates are simply and naively "into self-expression" as if it required no prerequisites and nothing more than getting it onto the schedule at registration.…

A study investigated the importance of reading in developing writing competence in an intensive Business Spanish course at the University of Toledo (Ohio). In class projects, two groups of students wrote business reports in which they advised a company on whether or not to market a product in a Spanish-speaking country. The projects each included…

A study (part of the New Zealand Writing Project) investigated how teachers respond effectively to their students' writing. Several related issues were investigated, including whether "good" teachers of writing at various levels differ in approach and techniques used, and which practices bring about improvement at different ages.…

Publication of student writing in adult basic education (ABE) or adult literacy classes in Great Britain was the focus of a research project. Discussions with 120 tutors and 136 students took place during field visits to 12 classes, 21 tutoring projects, 2 prison education departments, 2 further education colleges, 5 open learning centers, and 7…

This textbook contains five units of literature by the Plains Native Americans. The first unit presents examples of oral tradition, in which mythology, legends, stories, songs, and personal accounts pass on values, beliefs, and experiences. The second unit contains nonfiction: an account of a young girl's first days at an Indian boarding school,…

Traditionally, it has been off-limits to talk about failures attributable to the ideology of democratic, student-centered classrooms. However, these classrooms fail for a particular kind of student--the male student who defines himself with a quasi-religious, extremely religious or political stance and who demonstrates strident rejection of…

Through focusing on the genre of informational reports, two dilemmas of genre teaching are explored: (1) a teaching dilemma about how to help students achieve flexible writing competencies through a combination of immersion in text exemplars and instruction in text features; and (2) a curriculum dilemma about how to combine the goals of…

Beginning Pashto is part of a set of materials for teaching oral and written Afghan Pashto. The Pashto writing system is taught in the first unit of the book and is used in the presentation of the material from then on. In the first three units, material is provided also in a romanized transcription. After that, the transcription of a word or…

A discussion of English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) writing instruction focuses on cultural factors that influence Chinese students' composition and that may be misconstrued as poor writing techniques. It is argued that the different rhetorical conventions that ESL students incorporate into their English writing are based in the deeper and broader…

A framework for student Internet writing projects is proposed that consists of learning outcome goals and component activities. The framework is intended to be useful when designing and developing Internet writing projects and when evaluating student outcomes. Six learning goals are outlined: (1) engagement; (2) consideration of purpose and…

Presenting a consistent, integrated approach to the English/language arts, this book describes integrated, research-based principles for the teaching and learning of language, accompanied by numerous examples drawn from either the author's own experiences in the schools or from the professional literature. New and expanded features in this fourth…

Created under the assumption that children develop essential language skills through meaningful interaction with other individuals, this book takes into account many of the current trends in teaching elementary language. Among the primary trends addressed are the social constructivist theory, embedded assessment, the interdisciplinary approach to…

This book assists teachers to understand why basing instructional practices on cognitive theories of instruction can better prepare students to become strategic learners. The volume synthesizes and distills findings from current research and identifies instructional components that enable teachers to implement strategy instruction in the basic…

Over a 12-year teaching career--7 years on the college level--an instructor has found that his healthy identity as a gay male informs his performance in the contact zone of the classroom in ways that may be different than that of heterosexual teachers. It appears that gay male composition teachers who are less closeted view their sexual…