The first of six issues of the GED Items newsletter published in 1987 contains articles on one company's approach to literacy in the workplace, General Educational Development (GED) teacher training videotapes, and a process model for improving thinking skills. Articles in issue 2 address military recruiting, synthesis thinking skills, and GED in…

This booklet by a committee appointed to assess the teaching implications of the Reading and Writing tests of the New Jersey College Basic Skills Placement Test (NJCBSPT) is intended to provide ways of helping teachers assist students to improve their skills in reading and writing by, in part, pinpointing the major weaknesses of students taking…

The Pennsylvania Writing Project (PAWP), a regional outreach service of West Chester University, is described in this report. Among its basic assumptions are that: there is a nationwide need to improve the writing skills of school graduates; a pervasive problem is in the teaching of writing; colleges, universities and schools share a common…

Part of a series focusing on the classroom needs of special students, this book supplements more comprehensive and theoretical treatments of teaching language arts with practical classroom teaching strategies. The book is divided into the following five parts: (1) "Special Language Arts Needs of Special Learners," with chapters outlining…

The New Center for Learning is an experimental program at East Texas State University which offers students an alternative, interdisciplinary general education curriculum which can improve student writing more than traditional programs do. Students in the program take 36 hours of courses throughout their college careers which are offered by a…

This set of materials for a cultural writing curriculum for adult basic education students (5-8 grade level) consists of a teacher's guide and student manual (videotape and an audiocassette complete the set). The materials are intended to develop the adult learners' writing and reading competencies through their active involvement with the…

Intended for reading teachers, this book of articles about reading and writing was written by teachers who intended to ask new questions about reading instruction. It bases its practice on a teaching philosophy in which teachers expect their students to work together, not segregated into proficiency groups. The first section contains articles…

A study examined composition textbooks to determine any trends in composition instruction from 1900 to 1959. The study period was divided into three periods--1900 to 1917, 1918 to 1935, and 1936 to to 1959--and three textbooks from each period were content analyzed. A categorical framework was formulated, permitting allocation of tasks found…

While teachers of writing and related disciplines have become increasingly convinced of the value of computers in classrooms, there have also been reports of obstacles that arise when innovating with computers and word processing in the schools. Educators must determine whether the problems are mere inconveniences or potential barriers to the…

Conference presentations of research on reading comprehension, reading instruction, computer applications in reading instruction, and reading theory are compiled in this yearbook. Titles and authors of some of the articles are as follows: "A Rationale for Teaching Children with Limited English Proficiency" (M. Zintz); "Preliminary Development of a…

Designed to demonstrate a variety of ways in which listening, speaking, reading, and writing activities can be built around the study of poetry, this collection of materials, lessons, and activities covers some of the most frequently taught poems in New York City ninth-grade classrooms. The document begins with a general introduction to teaching…

A small group of college students studying writing in English as a second language was assigned a written report on the university's contributions to the community. The required tasks included compilation of data, delivery of oral reports, composition of the research report, group communication, revision of drafts, documentation of sources, and…

Noting that students read and write nonfiction without noticing how the language of nonfiction shapes the subject they are studying, the articles in this journal demonstrate ways in which teachers can link their concern for language with their students' interest in content subjects. Titles of the 24 essays are as follows: (1) "Spreading the…

A study was conducted to examine the communication reticence of high school students enrolled in required speech and writing courses. Approximately 200 students completed the Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (PRCA), the Unwillingness-to-Communicate Scale (UCS), and the Writing Apprehension Test (WAT). Data were then analyzed to…

Vocational teachers have a vital interest in students' developing competence in basic academic skills. They are aware that the teaching of basic skills must be a team effort between basic skills teachers and teachers of subject matter areas. Three basic academic skills that are taught in vocational classes are reading, writing, and mathematics.…