A two-year study determined the effects of a comprehensive cooperative-learning approach to reading and language arts instruction on students' achievement, attitudes, and metacognitive awareness. Students in second through sixth grades, some mainstreamed academically handicapped, worked in heterogeneous learning teams on reading and writing…

The integration of text analysis programs into realistic classroom writing activities was examined in a study of 39 university students. English-as-a-foreign-language students' own revision processes, teachers' feedback, peer editing, and two commercial packages (Grammatik and Complete Writer's Toolkit) were assessed. Attitudes toward the programs…

The nature, uniqueness, and value of testimonials in English-as-a-Second-Language courses are described. Oral narratives, collected from people from developing countries who cannot write, are edited and translated by a recorder/collector. Examples are cited and their use in the classroom is reported. (Contains 12 references.) (LB)

Questions must be raised about the nature, value, and use of academic discourse in the national debate on reforming the canon, acknowledging diversity, etc. It is proposed that students be involved in authentic work by immersion in reading, writing, and language and by having opportunities think critically about the material. (Contains 25…

Reviews what has happened in the field of second-language teaching over the past decades and examines the development of the process approach to writing by comparing it with the traditional product approach. A critical evaluation of the new approach follows and forms the premise for recommending a philosophy of eclecticism. (41 references) (CK)

Maintains that writing is one of the most important skills students can acquire. Asserts that social studies teachers can help students learn the writing process through a variety of written formats, such as essays, diary writing, and letter writing. Describes a classroom activity using letters and editorials. (CFR)

Describes a genre-based approach to content writing instruction used in a fifth-grade social studies class in which the majority of the students came from English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) backgrounds. A unit on explorers and exploration used narrative, descriptive, persuasive, and expository writing assignments to improve the students'…

Contends that teachers assign essay writing to help students improve their critical thinking skills. Discusses six criteria of a well-written history essay. Includes a five-essay assignment strategy, designed to be implemented over the course of an academic year, to help students improve essay research and writing. (CFR)

Explores the possibility that combining conflict management and English content, particularly short stories, can help young people develop more effective cognitive skills. Proposes a unit that begins with journal writing and general discussion of conflicts (including a description of three styles with which people manage conflict) and moves on to…

This article describes a field-based teacher education project that involved specialist teacher candidates and general education classroom teachers in educational partnerships to conduct action research on learning strategies. One such study showing the effectiveness of a writing strategy to help students (ages 12 and 13) with learning…

This paper presents a French-as-a-Second-Language writing course for non-Francophone students at an advanced university level. Because this approach to teaching writing focuses on the writer (and on the reader's expectations), as well as on textuality, the organization (i.e., the architecture) of this course is as complex as writing. (32…

Presents research on using small groups to help students think and reason about literature. Examines various small-group activities in ninth grade English classrooms. Analyzes effective and ineffective small-group work. Concludes that effective small-group work requires coherent activities that result in the sustained production of student…

Examines some of the ways word processing functions as a tool for beginning writers by focusing on one five-year-old student's progress in composition and understanding of the activity of writing. Writing task, writer skill, learning context, and software capacity intersected in a way that word processing functioned as a felicitous tool. (SM)

Identifies the forces responsible for the shift in writing instruction from product-oriented to process-oriented approaches. Briefly discusses the beginnings of writing across the curriculum at Carlton College and considers the suitability of this approach to community colleges. (DMM)

Discusses the development and implementation of an instructional unit that applies selected whole language strategies to teach reading and writing in the beginning stages of literacy in French. The unit shows how an authentic folktale can be used for integrating topics from the elementary curriculum to form a second-language curriculum for an…