Writing, essentially a social act, is concerned with cognition and is allied to context. Most writing takes the form of dialogue and it is out of dialogic processes that language acquisition takes place. Writers and readers convene in the cognitive and social space that is at the heart of a discourse community. The social aspects of writing are…

CraftPlus[R] is an integrated learning package that consists of a K-8 spiraling, core writing curriculum based on explicit Target Skills instruction; professional books; grade-level Curriculum Guides; sixteen workshop and classroom demonstration DVDs; and a CD with student samples and other classroom support materials. The grade-level Curriculum…

This study examined student writing over the past decades. The National Study of Writing Instruction addressed questions through analyses of existing data sets, particularly those from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which include background questions on instructional practices in U.S. middle and high schools. NAEP…

This collection of papers focuses on applied linguistics and second language teaching. Three of the papers discuss classroom issues, two examine new views and models in second language writing, and one describes the Koge project, which has presented the most comprehensive research on bilingual children in Denmark. The six papers include the…

Most educators intuitively understand the critical relationship between thinking and writing: writing allows us to express what we think, but the very act of writing spurs a process of exploration that changes our thinking and helps us learn. "Teaching Writing in the Content Areas" examines nearly 30 years of research to identify how teachers can…

In 1998, Roger Beard of the University of Leeds wrote an account of the research underpinning the emerging National Literacy Strategy (NLS). Since Beard published his review, there have been developments both in terms of age groups covered and within the field of literacy research. This document attempts a fresh review of the relationship between…

This project emphasized the writing-reading connection in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) curriculum, noting the effects of integrating nonfiction reading about culture into writing tasks and investigating reading-for-writing activities that functioned as an extension from the EFL classrooms to the outside world. The project occurred in a…

This teacher's guide, intended for the instruction of both French as a first language and French as a second language in an immersion setting, provides a host of strategies for teaching writing skills in the classroom (Grades 6 through 12). Section 1 is designed to bring the teacher's awareness to the training procedure, discussing the motivation…

A study evaluated the Alabama Direct Assessment of Writing Program. The comprehensive evaluation examined the background literature, the psychometric characteristics, and the impact of the writing assessment both quantitatively and qualitatively. Results indicated that: (1) the majority of fifth- and seventh-grade students in Alabama do not…

With teacher assistance and computer availability, composition students may use the World Wide Web as a valuable learning tool in the networked composition classroom and during personal studying time. The paper offers a list of six online providers and the number of subscribers for each. The paper then presents 118 selected web sites, including:…

Assessing literacy strategies through collected works, reading logs, journal writings, other language activities, and informal testing, this book provides preservice teachers a firm grounding in the theory of literacy portfolios as part of authentic assessment strategies and provides guidelines of creating and using literacy portfolios…

The proliferation and subsequent devaluation of electronic symbols necessitate a rethinking of classroom discourse. In recent years, "visual literacy" has become an issue among those who feel that the increasingly symbolic orientation of communications compels the writing instructor to address the dynamics of both visual and written…

As part of the research for a dissertation on composition at Bryn Mawr College during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, hundreds of student essays and daily themes were read. Over and over students affirmed the essential worth and significance of events in their daily lives and of their college education in general. More often than not,…

This collection of writings is the culmination of students' study in the Worker Education Program's (WEP) workplace literacy classes. The WEP is a joint labor/management project of the Service Employees International Union Local 285 and unionized health care employers in Massachusetts that offers a range of education, job training, and career…

This study investigated how writing groups function in a multilingual university classroom, the kinds of responses students in such groups give one another, and how students respond to peers' suggestions about writing. Subjects were 11 students of varied linguistic background in a freshman composition class. Data were gathered over 10 weeks…