A 3-year study involving 15 teachers and 15 students with visual impairments (grades K-4) evaluated the impact of the Mountbatten Brailler when used in a literacy instruction project. Teachers reported students were more motivated to write when they used the Mountbatten Brailler than when using the Perkins Brailler. (Contains 3 references.) (CR)

Presents classroom procedure involving Telling, Requesting, and Coaching (TRC) to enhance reading and writing in diverse students as an alternative to probing for information without prompts to introduce lessons, which is confusing and time consuming. Notes how TRC facilitates students' recall by telling them the needed information, requesting…

Describes using the pastiche as the basis for a writing workshop with secondary students. Shows how students are afforded opportunities to explore and enter a rich tradition of imaginative invention and literary formulation as they probe, consider, select, and blend the works of various master writers and Mother Goose rhymes. (SR)

Discusses ways to bolster first-year student writers' confidence in themselves. Provides a needs-assessment tool for high school and college instructors. (RS)

Presents five children's writing samples and makes suggestions for working with each writer. Stresses the importance of meeting children where they are (regardless of how they compare with their peers), since that is the only place from which they can start. (SR)

Conducts two studies that asked whether undergraduates who attended one-to-one conferences on rough drafts improved as writers. Notes the first year focused on peer tutors, so few changes remained for students to make, and results were inconclusive; but the second year focused on a professional tutor. Finds 65% of revisions made afterwards were in…

Describes a writing assignment based on the main character of a novel, an autobiography, or a biography about mental illness. Requests students to describe the characters' symptoms, to provide a diagnosis, to suggest a treatment plan, and to describe the treatment received. Notes the assignment promotes critical thinking and empathy for the…

Describes a freshman composition course which employs problem-solving exercises as a writing improvement technique. Notes that sharing ideas while solving problems builds new writers' openness and trust, whereas thinking aloud prepares students to benefit from other writers' thinking protocol methods. Suggests that brainstorming can help students…

Reports a study of teachers' and writers' interpretations of scenario assignments. Finds that, among the three groups tested (graduate students trained to teach rhetoric, academically successful undergraduate students trained as tutors, and entering freshmen) experienced writers' interpretations adhered most closely to the interpretive community's…

Twelve teaching strategies are suggested to help learning-disabled students learn to evaluate their writing skills. Checklists for scoring writing samples and for self-evaluation are included. (DB)

Describes using meditation to write with greater concentration, continuity, and depth, at any level of writing skill. Describes how to consciously cultivate the ability to focus, follow, and trace ideas through writing. (SR)

Examines the effect of key concept mapping strategies on reading comprehension and writing performance of fifth grade students using basal reading materials. Concludes that key concept mapping enhances comprehension of factual/informative text, but has no effect on written composition. Finds that literary mapping strategies enhanced neither…

Provides directions for performing eight short activities which relate to various animals and help to teach affective objectives relating to interests, attitudes, and values. (RT)

Notes that the ability to move from the general to the specific and back again is one of the schemas that basic writers lack. Argues that this schema can be developed through carefully composed writing assignments that employ all of the arts of language--reading, writing, speaking, and listening. (RS)

Reprints a 1980 article from this journal which responds to another article from the same year in the same journal and which argues that a writing teacher's joy is to help students develop both a caring self and a skillful mind. Updates the article with an Afterword commenting on the earlier piece. (SR)