This paper describes a comprehensive first grade language curriculum which views the acquisition of literacy as a whole language process. The paper explains how to configure program elements to provide direct instruction, time-on-task, and self-directed learning. The manner, timing, method of instruction, and specifics of the contribution of each…

A course of study was researched, designed, and implemented to improve the writing of fifth-grade students. Objectives of the program were to develop more positive feelings about writing while increasing the quantity, quality, and variety of writing. Cooperative learning and process writing was discussed with the participants, their parents, and…

A study was conducted to determine whether manipulating the classroom environment to be either apprehension producing (AP) or apprehension reducing (AR) could significantly change the level of students' dispositional writing apprehension. Five student teachers and one secondary education supervisor volunteered to participate in the experiment and…

The best way to teach writing is to make it the way to learn something else. Instructors need to look at written communication as it is used in real life. When students take pains with their writing, it is because what they have to say is important to them. The students' need to communicate a particular meaning for a particular purpose guides them…

Because of its ability to record and represent process, the computer can provide a powerful, motivating, and as yet untapped tool for focusing the students' attention directly on their own thought processes and learning through reflection. Properly abstracted and structured, the computational medium can capture the processes by which a novice or…

Technical writing instructors generally agree about the absolute need for communication skills throughout the technological work place, but a survey of technical writing journal articles shows a lack of focus on ways to address business's needs for on-the-job literacy. One major advance within the profession in recent years has been the…

Given that the task of freshman composition is to initiate students into the multidisciplinary academic discourse community, English teachers can speed up the novice's introduction more effectively than can specialists in those disciplines by having students observe, analyze, and produce the salient features of a discourse community's…

A summary is provided of the activities and outcomes of Irvine Valley College's (IVC's) CompuEnglish Project, a program designed to introduce word processing skills in Freshman Composition classes and assess improvements in student writing. First, introductory material describes efforts in computer-based composition undertaken at other schools,…

Focusing on talk as the vehicle through which the reading and writing processes can become more interactive and can more closely approach the processes of learning, the lessons presented in this booklet provide examples of how teachers can construct learning strategies to help children "talk their way into meaning" against a framework of…

Focusing on purpose in the writing of college freshmen, a study examined the writing processes and how they related to the conceptions of purpose of four freshmen enrolled in a composition course at Indiana University. Discourse-based interviews were conducted before and after the students completed three tasks designed to vary their choice of…

A study investigated how oral discourse affects the communicative process of teaching and learning and how that process influences and is influenced by the goals and expectations of college instructors and college students. Three college classes were observed for one semester. Data were collected in the form of field notes, cassette tapes of…

A survey of graduate writing courses offered at United States universities revealed two rationales for providing graduate level writing instruction: (1) students are underequipped by their undergraduate training for more advanced work, and (2) graduate work demands a different kind and level of writing which schools have a responsibility to teach.…

A study examined the behavior of first graders as they collaborated on a writing exercise using a word processor. Data were collected over three weeks in the form of fieldnotes and 13.5 hours of videotape of students working at the computer. Videotapes were examined to locate patterns of discourse and physical actions, and by abstracting from the…

Analysis and assessment of young children's spontaneous writing and drawing in daily journals may focus on three significant dimensions: what, who, and how: what stands for thought and meaning; who, for person; and how, for form. These categories may be further divided. Thought and meaning include theme(s), organization, and vocabulary; person…

Based on knowledge gleaned from eight years of research on children's writing development, this book focuses on the teaching of writing to children in the elementary school. The first section of the book deals with the essentials in teaching writing, and the establishment of a classroom that nurtures and supports growth in writing. The second…