A case study explored the issue of writing at transition, by describing the types of writing tasks a group of four pupils did at the end of Year 6, and at the beginning of Year 7. The range of writing activities has not changed much in the last 20 years, in spite of the introduction of the National Curriculum. The data indicate a mismatch of…

This paper examines the written use of the "be after V-ing" construction since the reintroduction of English into Ireland. Information comes from publications beginning in 1670, including 193 works by 87 authors providing 1,316 tokens of the construction. Results support Filppula's (1999) view of historical change in the use of this…

The College of Engineering at the University of Washington conducted a portfolio evaluation project to better understand the nature and effects of its writing project. The project was implemented to address two needs: (1) the need expressed inside and outside the college for graduates with better communication skills; and (2) the need to…

This essay explains the relevance of critique in rural education to novels about rural places. The most important quoted passage in the essay is from the noted physicist Richard Feynman: "Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts." Novelist-physicist C. P. Snow, historian Henry Adams, and poet and student-of-mathematics Kelly Cherry also…

Writing fits well within the realm of outcomes suitable for observation by performance assessments. Studies of the reliability of performance assessments have suggested that interrater reliability can be consistently high. Scoring consistency, however, is only one aspect of quality in decisions based on assessment results. Another is…

The project of writing and assembling the rhetoric-reader "Reading the Landscape: Writing a World" came from a wish to open for discussion a strong feeling that thinking about the land and a person's relationship to it empowers people as writers. The objective was to develop a composition course related to the environment that will…

A sabbatical spent exploring the genre of travel writing began a writing instructor's journey to figure out what travel writing teaches--and how--and why it is so compelling to students. Her research in the genre of travel writing began as she was preparing students going abroad to keep meaningful journals. In middle- and advanced-level travel…

This document contains a description of the Georgia High School Graduation Test in English Language Arts. The test item specifications, reflecting the Georgia State Quality Core Curriculum, are used by writers and reviewers who are responsible for the development of test items. Much of the content in the description is based on earlier test…

This book, one of a series, shows how to help motivate children to learn. The message of the series urges parents and children to spend time together, talk about stories, and learn together. The first part of each book presents stories appropriate for varying grade levels, both younger children and those in grades three and four, and each book…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 1998 Writing Assessment measured student writing performance at the 4th, 8th, and 12th grades. Scoring guides for each grade allowed scorers to objectively evaluate students' work. This issue of NAEPfacts includes a 4th-grade narrative scoring guide, along with samples of student work at each…

Technology brought the writing center to life because of the word processor, but new technology is actually going to create robotic life that thinks with us, for us, to us. It will offer portability all from a microchip stored in a coat pocket. Technology will continue to expedite today's hurry up world, and this will carry over into the writer's…

Intended for parents and teachers, this guide provides all the information needed to lead a first-grade child through 30 lessons or 30 weeks of learning for a beginning speller. The guide helps the child to learn to identify common, logical spelling patterns; leads the child quickly to more complex words; and aids him or her in becoming a…

Phonemic awareness and writing are thought to be important contributors to a child's success with reading. However, studies of "exceptional" children have shown contrary results. The Knowledge Sources theory is used to explain these results with regard to explicit and implicit generation procedures that have their source in the child's reading…

This book discusses the centrality of rhetoric in the academy, asserting the intimate connection between language and knowledge making and stressing the need for a change in the roles of teachers and students in today's classroom. The goal is mutuality, or sharing authority between teachers and students, and allowing everyone an equal voice. For…

Standards documents produced by professional educational organizations on the best ways to teach reading and writing have been synthesized by Zemelman, Daniels, and Hyde (1998). They recommend that teachers provide: more active learning in the classroom; more diverse roles for teachers; more emphasis on higher order thinking; more deep study of a…