This collection of writings, photographs, and drawings is intended for new readers of English as a second language. The writings are produced by English literacy students or are excerpted from published works by immigrant and American authors and include personal narratives and essays on home countries, work, education, and language. An…

Three installments of "Ideas from the Classroom," a regular feature of the National Council of Teachers of English publication, "Notes Plus," are presented in this compilation. "Ideas from the Classroom" offers a variety of teacher-submitted activities for English and language arts instruction. The three articles in…

The Highland (Indiana) public schools developed a writing program for elementary school students based on the premise that children learn to use language by actively generating language. The program features language production as the principal student activity in the English class and uses the students' own written work and oral expression as the…

To examine how the school environment shapes the composing process, a series of interviews were conducted over 16 months with a sample of students from an academically oriented high school. After an initial background interview, each student met biweekly with one member of the research staff and discussed the writing he or she had done since the…

Designed to develop students' abilities to follow directions and organize and write their thoughts, this junior high level activity involves students in creating a dream person using magazine or catalog pictures and then writing a biography of this person. Materials include teacher notes, follow-up suggestions, evaluation procedure, and a…

A study investigated the effects of preteaching vocabulary on students' performance of a writing task targeted to the use of those words. Subjects were 50 fourth grade and 55 sixth grade students. Materials included a pretest narrative writing assignment, a 10-word vocabulary pretest and posttest, a vocabulary instructional booklet with teacher's…

Divided into two sections, this report outlines several components of computer based instruction in the composing process. The first section, which focuses on the use of computers in editing, generating ideas, and producing text, presents a users' manual for composition instruction on a microcomputer, a general description of how computer based…

An approach to writing for high school and college students is presented in this brief article. AUTHOR'S COMMENT (excerpt): The science fiction course I teach is an elective that enrolls about fifty students per class. Ninety percent or more of the students are not English majors and have done little writing in the recent past. Assigning frequent…

Attempting to place in an American context many of the ideas about the teaching of writing that were first developed in England, this book contains contributions from internationally prominent teachers/scholars who attended the New York University-CBS Sunrise Semester course on learning to write and writing to learn. The text also reflects the…

Activities in this elementary unit focus on developing students' locational skills while strengthening their ability to read and follow instructions. Seven maps of varying complexity are accompanied by worksheets containing 8 to 13 direction exercises. Students are instructed to place buildings, landmarks, and labels in accurate locations on each…

Intended to help secondary school composition instructors develop a useful, pragmatic unit on technical writing, this monograph explores the theory, research, and pedagogy of technical writing. The first section discusses the purpose and forms of technical writing, as well as elements of technical style including diction, paragraphing, and…

"Fitness over Forty" is a 17-week multimedia course designed to lead to improved physical fitness for adults in the 40 to 60 age bracket who are of average health but have not been consistent in their physical activity. Course components include seven 30-minute television programs, a guidebook, and a fitness diary (including fitness…

Three issues of a literacy magazine contain articles written by and for individuals learning English writing skills. Most of the articles are personal narratives or accounts of significant personal experiences. These pieces are divided into sections according to skill level. One section consists of student writings with brief commentaries on style…

In 1989, a project was undertaken to improve the student success rate in a writing course (Communications I) at a Florida multi-campus institution. Of the 489 students who had taken the course, 18% were unsuccessful in completing it in one semester. Three observed student behaviors which contributed to poor writing performance were an inability to…

Aimed at elementary school teachers interested in promoting their students' enjoyment of and skill in writing, this guide offers a number of ideas for writing activities. The guide focuses on the creative use of language and suggests ways in which students can be stimulated to write poems and stories, create metaphors, write descriptions of people…