Suggests that children are actively engaged in recreating, rather than reproducing, playful versions of adult roles, in continual negotiation with their play partners. They sustain multiple, concurrent identities as they draw on a variety of voices as both narrators and narrated characters, telling stories about themselves and other players, and…

Seventh- and eighth-grade students in a small Vermont town publish a community newspaper. Students learn writing skills, organizing, meeting deadlines, computer skills, problem solving, production skills, and much about their community while meeting Vermont's academic cross-disciplinary standards. Teacher comments describe the 3-year development…

English teachers have three frustrating goals: to teach writing, increase appreciation of literature, and instill mechanics and grammar. High schools should borrow from college practice and split composition and literature courses. Using a writing-across-the-curriculum approach would require collaboration with teachers in other disciplines. (MLH)

Advice to American Indian students on writing a college application essay focuses on conveying an honest portrayal of significant aspects of their lives. Distinctive stories grounded in Native American experience are likely to catch the interest of the admissions officer. A sample essay and representative essay questions are included. (SV)

Considers reader response to be a useful teaching method when it is linked with course goals and integrated into the structure of the classroom. Recommends reader response because it promotes critical thinking and comprehension of reading materials, facilitates class participation, and engages students in the learning process. Gives a sample…

Reviews research on the "new rhetoric" and written composition, applying these principles to legal discourse writing in the law school curriculum. Notes that the new rhetoric posits that writing is a process of constructing thought and describes selected teaching practices within the reader-writer loop, including reading and writing…

Presents a hypermedia scrapbook assignment in which students identified seven key objects, feelings, or concepts that they felt were important to them in order to enhance their historical reflection. Conveys that the assignment focused on nonlinear ways of thinking and helped students develop a sensitivity towards evidence. (CMK)

The spelling skills of grade three children who had received whole-language instruction since they began to learn to read were compared with those of grade three children attending a phonics program. Overall, the phonics group produced more accurate word spellings than the whole-language group. In addition, the phonics children's spelling of…

This study on the marking of the past tense in students' essay writing examines why some students use some verbs accurately and not others. Reveals that while some students are consistently accurate, others are not, a tendency that comes from the influence of the first language. (Adjunct ERIC Clearinghouse for ESL Literacy Education) (Author/VWL)

Draws on data collected in an ethnographic project in an urban first grade to examine how media use informs child composing. Focuses on the influence of visual media involving animation. Concludes with a consideration of the teaching challenges posed, and opportunities offered, by the children's media use. (Author)

Examines the reflective writing of 37 student teachers during their field placements. Identifies themes that the interns believed they learn and need to know, such as preparing for instruction, varying approaches to teaching, making learning relevant, managing students and recognizing problem situations, expanding and using art knowledge, and…

Presents a study on the implementation of a constructivist approach to using multimedia technology in two advanced language arts classrooms in a public middle school. Because the principal content consisted of written material, the authors examined pre- to posttest improvement in writing ability as measured by trained raters of essays.…

Describes a project that used photography to inspire and structure creative writing among students who were struggling writers. Outlines the writing process and the problems struggling writers encounter. Provides information for taking good photographs, making photographs interesting, and choosing subject ideas to get students started. (SD)

While not all gifted children love reading and writing and they do not all have access to books or grow up in literary families the great majority of these children crave the rich and imaginative world that literacy has to offer. Differences in culture, age, and geography influence this love of storytellers, poets, songwriters, and novelists, but…

The purpose of this study was to get more insight in the effects of written assessment tasks integrated in a problem-based learning environment. Both the influence on students' performances and students' perceptions were investigated. Students' final exam results were used to find out whether students who make the assessment tasks do better than…