Mounting concern for student achievement in writing has refocused attention on the features of writing assessment necessary to represent a student's skill fairly, usefully and economically. If writing tests are to fulfill their intended function, the writing assignments and evaluative criteria of large scale tests and instruction must interrelate.…

The problems encountered by English as second language (ESL) students in selecting verb tenses for their written discourse were investigated. Tape recorded interviews with four freshman composition students who had been referred for intensive work on verb errors were analyzed for students' explanations of their errors and the contexts in which…

A longitudinal study investigated some of the home and school influences on the writing development of 20 children. Data collected in all three phases of the research included measures of preschool oral language development, transcripts and interviews concerning parental and child interest in literacy, classroom observations of primary schooling,…

Designed for use in Adult Basic Education (ABE) programs, this curriculum guide contains a skills outline, activities, materials, a bibliography of selected materials, and 343 worksheets dealing with word attack, spelling, reading, and writing skills. The curricular model presented utilizes a minimum essentials approach that passes students…

Research on the effectiveness of literacy instruction of bilingual children is reviewed. Most research on reading in a bilingual setting involves college students in the United States or younger students in other countries, while research on writing in a bilingual setting is only beginning to emerge. The review focuses on the nature of literacy,…

The first of five volumes, this guide for kindergarten and first grade complements the Chicago Mastery Learning Reading Program or other reading programs, and provides an outline of skills in listening, speaking, and writing. The introductory section contains objectives, a description of the organization of the book, and a discussion of the…

This booklet provides a brief overview of the Connecticut ninth-grade proficiency test by listing the skills to be assessed on the test. Sample questions exemplifying each skill are also included. Areas assessed include: (1) basic writing skills in the language arts (mechanics of written expression, composing and organizing skills, and library…

Developed by teachers to provide a district-wide description of English course content, this curriculum guide is intended for use as a basis for planning instructional activities in a number of areas. The guide consists of four main sections: (1) an introduction, which provides a statement of philosophy, a scope and sequence of skills within…

Concern over the poor and illegible handwriting of the students in Somalia led to the development of this handwriting manual for primary school teachers to: (1) give teachers guidance in teaching handwriting; (2) help teachers in the methodology of teaching handwriting; (3) let teachers know the easier ways of making cheap and obtainable materials…

Designed to help classroom teachers discover how to use computers effectively in teaching writing, this annotated bibliography contains citations of articles that have appeared in education journals, books, and the ERIC system. Among the topics covered in the more than 50 articles cited are the following: (1) feedback programs for individualized…

This manual presents a sequence of assignments to encourage students to commit themselves to a writing project in which the content is derived from their own purposeful investigations of subjects within their local community. Introductory information explains how the instructional sequence works, indicating that: (1) students are asked to…

The learning objectives for writing skills contained in this volume are congruent with Texas law. These objectives and the measurement specifications are provided for teachers and test developers involved with the preparation of the Texas Educational Assessment of Minimum Skills (TEAMS) tests. Beginning with the 1985-86 school year, the TEAMS…

Intended for writing instructors and content instructors who require writing in their courses, this document describes a college's writing skills assessment program and reviews the implications of a campus-wide approach to evaluating writing. The paper emphasizes that the scoring of placement and developmental English exit exams is done by the…

The reading/writing project described in this document examined the basic cognitive activities children engage in when reading and writing, involved 67 children from grades 3, 6, and 9, and addressed these questions: Since reading and writing both involve the development of meaning, is there a common language core, or routines, that children…

Forty-eight children, equally divided among three-, four-, and five-year-old groups, were subjects in a study that explored the development and interrelationships among several facets of writing knowledge and reading readiness skills. Three categories of tasks were administered: knowledge of functions, knowledge of forms, and reading readiness…