Expressing concern that interest in hand lettering and calligraphy has diminished due to limited career applications, seventeen U.S. master calligraphers who teach or have taught calligraphy were interviewed. The calligraphers made six suggestions that have implications for educators: (1) italic based alphabets, rather than the current forms of…

In 1989 the Portland (Oregon) Public Schools conducted a Direct Writing Assessment of approximately 6,000 students. A voluntary portion included 103 ninth graders who wrote essays on the same topic. The papers were scored twice: once in each student's handwriting and once in word-processed form. Papers were separated into short and long categories…

The report lists competencies for teachers in every day interactions with learning disabled students. Developed by a task force, the competencies are intended to serve as general guidelines. Information is presented on the goal, assessment competencies, and instructional competencies for the following areas: classroom management, spoken language,…

The result of five years of collaboration, discussion and applied research, this book reviews theory and research on handwriting instruction for ordinary children as well as giving detailed consideration to the problems encountered by slow learners and children with physical disabilities. The titles of the chapters (and their authors, if different…

Based on the general lack of empirical evidence on the effects of word processors on writing quality, a study focused on changes in writing quality and syntax of first-year college writers who were taught to use word processors as part of their English composition class. The issue addressed was whether using word processors increased the syntactic…

Using word processors and the traditional handwriting method, a study investigated the relationship of learning styles to performance in twelfth graders' written compositions. Subjects (n=55) were enrolled in a public school in east central Mississippi. The study hypothesized that students using word processors and those using the traditional…

The writing manual for a course in basic Pashto teaches the Pashto alphabet: the letters, their sounds, their names, and their shapes in various combinations with other letters. Each lesson, designed to take one class hour, consists of a presentation of the material to be learned, exercises using that material, exercises reviewing previously…

Intended for elementary school teachers, this article deals with reading readiness, handwriting, listening skills, and linguistics in the elementary school. The reading readiness section discusses utilizing pictures in teaching, using real objects in teaching, making picture dictionaries, placing labels on objects, developing experience charts,…

Geography, wealth and density of populations, prevailing religious beliefs, and educational systems all influenced the evolution of educational tools and methods of instruction in the United States. Due to the practical nature of the early settlers, writing was taught earlier in America than in England, using quill pens and handmade rag pulp…

This paper presents 111 specific activities to help elementary students develop their creative writing skills. For each activity, suggestions are given for ways to begin and to develop the activity and for follow-up. Other sections of the paper discuss the type of classroom climate which is conducive to the development of creative writing skills,…

Described in this report is a longitudinal study that examined the transition that children make from oral to written texts in respect to their use of cohesive devices and particular story structure elements in two modes of oral and one mode of written language. The first section provides an overview of the study and discusses literacy…

The following papers on English as a second language (ESL) are collected here: (1) "The Joy of Language" by H. Douglas Brown, (2) "Hats Off to the TESOL Classroom Teacher" by Darlene Larson, (3) "Two Languages in One Brain: An Introduction to Psycholinguistics" by Lev Soudek, (4) "Do Techniques Derived from…

THE ACTIVITIES OF THE RACINE, WISCONSIN, R/I UNITS INCLUDED A CREATIVITY STUDY, LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT EXPERIMENTS, TWO EXPERIMENTS IN INDIVIDUALIZING HANDWRITING, AN ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECTS OF INCREASED HOME-SCHOOL CONTACT ON PARENT ATTITUDE AND STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT, THREE EXPERIMENTS IN INDIVIDUALIZED ARITHMETIC INSTRUCTION, AND RESEARCH AND…

A description and the rationale for selection of new instructional materials adopted by the California State Department of Education are provided in this curriculum publication. Intended for use in grades 1-8 for a four-year period beginning with the 1968-69 school year, these materials include dictionaries, basic language textbooks, supplementary…

Presented is a curriculum guide to the readiness level of the child who is hyperactive, a behavior problem, or unable to sustain attention. The following areas are included: language development (including perceptual-motor skills), physical development (following the Frostig Perceptual Program), alphabet and sounds, creative exercises, language…