The primary goal for teachers of English composition is to help students achieve a competent oral and written style compatible with their own environment, age, sex, and socioeconomic background. To help students express their thoughts and perceptions clearly and logically, teachers should (1) exhibit a positive attitude toward writing; (2) provide…

Contemporary poetry can be of value in the study of composition as a model of careful, concise, and effective use of language. Students can observe and, hopefully, imitate the poet's precise use of (1) vocabulary, (2) supporting materials, (3) introductions and conclusions, (4) transitional words and phrases, and (5) a variety of types of diction…

This poetry assignment for college freshmen involved preparing a paper. Reading of an Unterecker essay on poetry, extensive reading in a chosen poet, study of criticism, and organization of the paper are discussed. Excerpts from the results are included. Results are discussed in relation to the appreciation of poetry and composition skills. (AF)

A questionnaire designed to gather data on seven different approaches to the teaching of composition and disseminated among a sample of high school and college English teachers in the New York area forms the basis of this discussion. Form, thematic, grammatical, processes, creative, rhetorical, and psychological approaches are defined and…

The inductive-method teacher sees himself as part of a process of learning rather than as dispenser of knowledge. He structures classroom situations in which students discover answers and concepts for themselves. He selects material and guides class work, but concentrates on how a student learns, developing a carefully-guided sequence of questions…

Traced in this study are specific developments in the reform of the English curriculum in secondary schools between the establishment of entrance tests in English at Harvard in 1873 and the founding of the College Entrance Examination Board in 1900. During that period the importance of English as a subject grew because of pressures exerted on…

This state curriculum guide is intended to provide Alaskan secondary school language art teachers with a sequential instructional program designed to meet the need of students in all aspects of language arts in grades 9-12. After an introductory statement on the use of the guide and a discussion of the needs and characteristics of youth, the guide…

This junior high school study guide supplements Gore Vidal's "Visit to a Small Planet." Included are quizzes (with answer keys) and teaching suggestions on the presentation of the opus, oral reports, reading comprehension, various acts of the play, vocabulary and word analysis, sentence patterns and tranformations, language usage,…

Certain teaching performances needed to elicit and reinforce specific linguistic performances from the students fall under the categories of speaking a variety of standard English, reading, spelling, vocabulary, and grammatical structures and writing. As a model of linguistic usage, the teacher must speak a standard variety of English, build on…

Designed to assess analytically the quality of children's fictional stories, this study is composed of a set of twelve scales: structure, word usage, characterization, setting, point of view, conversation, detail, appeals to senses, values, ending, sentence structure, and situation. Each scale is scored 0, 1, or 2, with the highest possible score…

Designed to assess the quality of children's narrative compositions, the Glazer Narrative Composition Scale (GNCS) consists of eighteen scales outlined under plot, theme, setting, characterization, and style. Each scale is scored 1, 2, or 3, depending on how much of the scale element is present in the narrative, with the highest possible score…

This study sought to determine whether the de Hirsch Predictive Index Tests would accurately identify children who were potential failures in school. The study also investigated whether a perceptual-motor and oral language program would aid those children identified as potential failures. The Predictive Index Tests were administered to 645 first…

Produced by a staff of teachers working on curriculum teams for Project PACESETTER, this secondary school English curriculum guide organizes materials into behavioral objectives which include two major components: the objective statement, which specifies the behavioral variable, and activities, which outline what the student should do to attain…

A comment on the teaching of English to students between the ages of 8 and 15, this book contains sections which revolve around the "vital approach"--the introduction of a central theme through the children's own interests, local events, or the creation of a situation that will call for practice of the English skills. Sections are given to an…

The Instructional Objectives Exchange (IOX) collected for several subject areas objectives and measurement items based upon curricular material either submitted by teachers, schools, and school districts, or generated by the IOX staff. Contained in the language arts collection are 85 objectives and related evaluation items for grades kindergarten…