Emphasizing real-life communication skills, this book offers cooperative activities to help teachers supplement their writing programs with easy-to-use critical thinking activities. The 16 activities in the book are suitable for grades 4 through 8, for gifted younger students, or as a remediation tool for older students. The activities expose…

This digest summarizes the more than 300 items in the ERIC database concerning writing across the curriculum (WAC) published between 1990 and 1992. The digest presents categories of material about WAC--advocacy, activities, recent research, implementing new programs, and faculty training--and discusses one or two pertinent sources for each…

Twenty-two students in a business communications course engaged in a collaborative project with several Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, business enterprises. After the students had acquired introductory skills that would enable them to perform effectively, they were divided into six groups and began working with representatives from local businesses…

Allowing, or encouraging, students to write fiction has not received much attention from college composition teachers, despite recent attempts to bridge the gaps between composition and the study of literature. Based on experiences with a number of students in a variety of writing courses, a college composition instructor questions assumptions…

Noting that comic books are known and read by a wide variety of students, this paper presents brief descriptions of 30 ways that teachers can use comic books in a wide variety of subjects and grade levels. The ideas for using comic books in the paper are designed to help teachers become aware of what their students are reading and to use what…

Rationale and techniques for incorporating global environmental education into second language instruction are discussed. The approach suggested combines infusion of environmental issues into the curriculum and presentation of a global perspective on environmental problems and their solutions. Six concepts of global education are outlined:…

Expanding on the World Wide Web levels of use as defined on the "Courses on the Web" Web site at Oregon State University, this paper presents a structure which emphasizes K-12 assignments based on Web use while de-emphasizing the glitz of the Web. The educator purposefully designs a Web-based assignment which adheres to the unit…

A basic writing course instructor attempted to facilitate her students' survival in the academy by demystifying writing conventions while teaching them how to analyze discourses about literacy, especially in relation to cultural and economic forces. Students were asked to design an ideal basic writing course as a final journal assignment.…

A study examined the integration of computers into the writing practices of a ninth-grade remedial English class in an urban high school in the San Francisco area. Computers and word processors were introduced midway into the school year. The class was observed and recorded daily through the academic year, and all written work collected. Six…

Writing autobiographies, in which students describe their experiences as writers, show that students already know a great deal about their strengths and weaknesses as writers and about the conditions they need to write successfully. Typical first assignments given to entering college students are often used to diagnose the ability level and…

The principle of empathic learning (involving activities that help students feel what it is to be like someone else) can be used to teach poetry, a material about which students have strong prejudices, and an activity they cannot imagine themselves ever doing or being interested in. First, students are presented with the conception that people…

At Moravian College, the Communication course is an interdisciplinary introduction to the writing process, designed to help freshmen develop strategies for solving problems at each stage of writing. The course is unique in that it is not meant to be taught exclusively by members of the English department and is taught in close alliance with…

A discussion of the task-based approach to second language learning looks at different interpretations of "task" and defines it in terms of two basic dimensions: (1) degree of learner involvement in purposeful work, and (2) a continuum from focus on linguistic form to focus on message. It is proposed that these dimensions can be understood better…

Noting that students often have difficulty reading texts for information, this book offers practical, classroom-tested techniques that focus on content while encouraging students to take control of their own learning by expanding their repertoire of reading strategies. The book defines "infotexts" as the books, textbooks, journals,…

An Indiana professor of business used the British magazine "The Economist" as required reading in courses on international business in order to introduce a global and humanistic element. "The Economist" is a 100-plus page news weekly of economics and finance with a principal goal of increasing understanding of the critical…