The practicum was designed to increase the organizational skills of four emotionally handicapped students (aged 13-14) enrolled in a secondary school program, and to increase the quantity and quality of homework completed by those students in a regular English class. A needs survey documented that students, parents, and teachers felt that…

It does not take a computer expert to teach students how to use word processing software to prewrite, write, revise, and edit a professional-looking paper. Just a small amount of expertise allows students to work independently as long as they have access to a computer and the necessary software. The computer also facilitates interactive learning…

To help achieve success, students must construct purposes for reading so that they can gain the appropriate kind of information while reading. After a student has set a purpose for reading, she/he may preview the material to be read. The next step is to read the material at an appropriate speed considering the purpose for reading and the nature of…

Embedded in a sensitive instructional context rather than a stifling testing atmosphere, diagnostic lessons provide assessment that is reliable, practical, valid, and efficient. In this type of assessment, there are several determiners of instructional placement: (1) students' propensity to adapt strategies as a result of specified instruction,…

Questions raised by the misinterpretations evidenced in the final examination essays of a freshman English class should lead teachers to a new understanding of how the phrasing of writing assignments influences what students write. Some of the questions included: (1) How detailed must an assignment be to communicate its goals? (2) What type of…

The 1865 conspiracy to assassinate Abraham Lincoln also included plans to assassinate other government officials on that same April evening. The actor, John Wilkes Booth, succeeded in killing Lincoln, but his fellow conspirators bungled their attempts to kill William Seward, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant, and possibly Edwin Stanton. In…

This teaching unit describes an elective reading course for high school students incorporating the goals and methods of writing across the curriculum. Students choose the books they want to read and read in class at least two days each week, and write a brief journal entry at the end of the class period. Students also have the option of writing a…

Elements that might be included in a course syllabus are discussed, and reasons for a well-written syllabus are briefly noted. The following syllabus elements are covered: course description, course objectives, course structure, textbook and required materials, recommended optional materials, course schedule, deadlines, evaluation methods, policy…

Young children learn many important things about language from the television and radio ads they encounter that can help them learn to read and write. They learn that print carries messages that are personally important to them, that whatever can be said can also be written, what some forms of written language look like, and that language use can…

One way of giving students a sense of audience in their writing is to combine speech communication and written communication in the classroom. If students can be taught to write as they talk, they can perceive their audience to be real people rather than the amorphous "indefinite other" they typically write for in the traditional writing…

A project to develop a student word processing manual was developed by using input from: (1) information specialists, employees, and educators; and (2) students using the manual. These instructional materials provide workbook assignments and reading for an individualized unit on CPT word processing to be used by 30 to 40 high school students per…

Guidelines and suggested instructional materials are outlined as an aid for English instructors who teach non-English-speaking adults. First, teachers are urged to recognize that learning a language is a difficult task that requires a great deal of time; that there are some sounds and words that an adult learning a new language may never be able…

This paper describes the composition of one particular kind of study guide called a pattern guide that can be used by content area teachers to aid their students in reading and understanding their textbooks. The purpose of the guide is stated as highlighting the reading and thinking skills to be used as well as the most important concepts to be…

A journal-based college composition program has been developed that links journal writing to the development of competence in more formal writing. Students write both free choice and assigned entries, and their entries become the basis of all the themes they write; in-class assignments focus on the improvement of specific aspects of the journal…

THE FORMAT OF LEVEL III (FOR GRADE 11) DIFFERS FROM THAT OF LEVELS I AND II IN HAVING 20 UNITS AND IN THE INCREASED EMPHASIS ON READING AND WRITING SKILLS. THE AUTHORS' GOAL WAS TO ENCOURAGE SELF-STUDY BY THE STUDENT, ESPECIALLY IN LEARNING TO READ CHINESE CHARACTERS. THE GRAMMAR DISCUSSED IN THIS TEXT INCLUDES POINTS PRESENTED IN LEVELS I AND II…