Provides suggestions for creating a writing-intensive course. Focuses on meeting course goals or objectives with student writing, describing the different types of writing assignments and discussing the mixture of assignments, amount of writing, and ensuring success. Includes a syllabus for a writing-intensive undergraduate sociology course. (CMK)

This article describes the experiences of a sixth-grade language arts class that participated in a research and portfolio-writing exercise using the school library media center. Students in this class learned that organization and process are central to the completion of a successful research project. After learning various note-taking strategies…

Students benefit in several important ways when a substantive writing assignment is included in a general biology course. Properly designed and implemented, written assignments can enhance mastery of basic information, as well as prompt students to exercise and develop the fundamental skills of planning, research, synthesis, composition, and…

Using an authentic assessment approach, two California State University, Fullerton, faculty members developed instructional strategies in support of an assignment that requires students to situate their families within a historical framework. We describe our efforts to provide students with the research skills to successfully complete the…

Students are most successful in online courses that provide ample opportunities for them to interact with the instructor, other students, and the course content. An interactive online course must engage students as active learners rather than as passive participants. How can instructors design virtual classrooms that offer students with a variety…

"Homophobia Prevention" is a two-week social studies mini-unit. The purpose of this mini-unit is to raise awareness and understanding levels surrounding heterosexism and heterosexual privilege. Additional student goals for the mini-unit include forming connections between heterosexism and other forms of oppression, as well as identifying…

In this article, the author describes some of the teaching methods she uses to teach how different American Indian groups lived in different regions of the North American continent. Her lessons include a number of projects: (1) Practicing symbolic writing; (2) Creating a personal timeline; (3) Studying winter counts and creating a personalized…

This article describes a combination of a research essay and a creative writing assignment that encourages rigorous academic research while allowing students to get "outside the box" of traditional academic research papers. This assignment has five steps. The first two steps offer the chance to introduce academic research along with summary and…

In this study, a hierarchical linear model (HLM) was used within a cluster random assignment design to test the impact of "Criterion"? on students' writing skill when "Criterion" was used as a supplementary instructional tool in ninth grade English classrooms over a 4 week period. The study was conducted in three states:…

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Confronting the Autism Epidemic: New Expectations for Children with Autism Means a New Role for Public Schools (Kate McKenna); (2) Internet Research 101:…

This study examines a math journal writing assignment comparing how high school (grades 10 through 12) algebra students who performed well and students who performed poorly on traditional mathematics tests constructed their corresponding journal entries. Statistically significant differences found indicated that students who performed well on the…

The environment is a ready-made subject in writing classrooms, and teachers at all levels are encouraging students to write about nature and environmental issues. Environmental issues provide a equitable meeting place for students from a variety of different backgrounds, interests, and ideologies. There are also many pedagogical advantages to…

The Youth Empowerment Strategies (YES!) project is an afterschool empowerment program and research project for underserved early adolescents. Central to YES! is an empowerment intervention that provides early adolescents with opportunities for civic engagement with other youth around issues of shared concern in their schools and neighborhoods.…

In two sections of a world history class, 43 sixth graders, all considered competent readers, participated in two sets of tasks. First, they used a familiar textbook to locate the answers to six questions, all of which contained terms that could be found in the book's index. Second, they participated in a report-writing project in which they were…

Integrating up-to-date composition theory with pedagogical research in critical thinking and inquiry, this book presents a flexible organizational structure to accommodate a range of freshman composition course designs and to engage students intellectually in problem-centered writing activities to prepare them for academic tasks across the…