Students (ages 8-17) in a hospital psychiatric unit used telecommunications to communicate with students in special education classrooms in several states. Benefits of participation in the electronic mail project included making bias-free impressions, improving grammar, and increasing letter length. This paper examines program operation and…

Minilessons on two writing skills (use of adverbial phrases and possessives) were taught during whole group instruction in mainstream settings which included four sixth grade students with learning disabilities. Increases in the taught skills for three of the four students suggested the effectiveness of the minilesson approach. (DB)

Two studies are reported which investigated the efficacy of an interactive approach to teaching writing revision skills for 11 adolescents with learning disabilities. Results from both studies indicated that interactive teaching successfully taught students to identify ambiguities and make their writing more salient. (Author/PB)

Examines how various reading and writing activities interacted over time as college students composed from multiple sources. Discusses the linear and nonlinear nature of the restructuring and composing process. Finds that individual reading and writing activities served unique yet partially overlapping functions over the course of the task.…

Suggests focusing historical narratives explaining composition's emergence and search for an identity by concentrating on the changing face of rhetoric within institutional settings. Investigates the cultural history of the term "process." Explores what the unacknowledged cultural values "process" bring to reading and writing and the…

Four grade-two boys received invented spelling guidance with creative writing periods and direct instruction with guided practice on spelling. Although direct instruction resulted in more targeted words spelled correctly, invented spelling resulted in more nontargeted words spelled correctly, higher preference ratings by children, and higher…

A class structure and format for teaching writing skills are suggested by an English teacher at a school for deaf students. A typical lesson consists of 10 minutes of dialogue journal writing, a 15-minute minilesson, help with selecting writing topics, and 30 to 35 minutes for writing. Methodologies for teacher conferences, peer conferences, and…

This article describes the introduction of writing portfolios to elementary school students with learning disabilities in self-contained special education classrooms. It discusses getting started, contents of the portfolio, instructional goals and objectives, conferences, observations, and portfolio evaluation. (Author/DB)

Issues of teacher education and training (INSET) have received little systematic attention from the profession. A critical evaluation of a four-year project with teachers of German in the Pacific Northwest provides the basis for a framework of INSET within which teachers learn to function as researchers and as teacher trainers. (Contains 42…

Research on college student essay writing looked at the qualitatively different ways that students conceive of essays, and therefore approach the writing process, and the qualitatively different types of essays that result. The findings are compared, and implications for the teaching of undergraduate essay writing are examined. (MSE)

Students with deafness in a whole-language classroom complete writing exercises and then edit what they write at the "editors' table," where teams of students work with dictionaries, grammar guides, lists of commonly misspelled words, self-editing forms, and proofreading checklists. Use of the "editors' table" approach has created a community of…

Asserts that computer analysis makes it possible to assess the intervention of a second "author" in Christopher Columbus's famous "Diary." Concludes that computer analysis makes it possible to examine Columbus's verbatim testimony and identify ways that Bartoleme de Las Casas intervened. (CFR)

Describes briefly the proposal to change the writing program universitywide at Western Illinois University. Draws conclusions about the rhetorical situation of the writing program administrator in his or her attempts to substantively rename and predicate what educators do and thus to redefine the discipline. (MG)

Explores ways in which first-language literacy learning strategies can be understood as either enhancing or complicating acquisition of second-language literacy skills, focusing on the social context of schooling, cognitive considerations of the written code, and pedagogical practices most often used in reading and writing. (41 references)…

A system is presented for advancing writing assessment beyond simple summative statements into a procedure for planning and evaluating instruction for all students, particularly those with learning disabilities. Case studies are presented in which writing samples are analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively for story idea,…