Presents annotations of 11 conference papers, books, and other material (published between 1988 and 1992) that focus on theoretical, rhetorical, curricular, and classroom issues of professional writing. (RS)

Classroom-based writing mentors facilitate learning and knowledge transfer for both students and instructors in their classes. They accomplish this by doing "with" rather than by only teaching "to", making the means of learning more visible and, therefore, the writing goals more accessible; this provides a powerful means of…

"Working Smarter, Not Harder: Reaching the Tough to Teach" is the topic of an exclusive four-part series by the author for the "Kappa Delta Pi Record." Part I, Prior Knowledge and Concept Development, appeared in the Fall 2007 issue of the "Record." This article is the second of the four-part series. It discusses content integration and how to…

Binary logistic regression analyses were performed on institutional data from a large urban community college in order to identify predictors of performance in a content course (psychology) that had high literacy demands. It was found that students who completed college English were more likely to pass the content course than students with…

This study examined (a) the effects of Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) on student use of critical thinking skills (CTS) in written responses to district reading assessments, (b) if practiced oral responses affected the ability to respond critically using written language, (c) whether there was a relationship between the development of the CTS of…

Studies report that U.S. students rank among the lowest in the area of mathematical knowledge of all industrialized countries. Schools in the United States are producing graduates ill-prepared to be successful at jobs which require mathematical competency. To increase mathematical understanding, this study examined the inclusion of writing in…

Writing is the ability to compose text effectively for different purposes and audiences. When many of us reflect on our own school experiences, we recall writing in English and history classes, but not in mathematics. Math classes previously relied on skill-building and conceptual understanding activities. Today, teachers are realizing that…

By using a simple teacher-made template, students as young as first grade can collaboratively write and publish their own student-created newsletters. Teachers enjoy the time and energy they save with this integrated learning strategy, and the experience that students gain in publishing their own class newsletter seems to strengthen learning…

Students learn how to write in English class, but they seem shocked when they are told that they can put those skills to work in science class too, since writing is a huge part of science to communicate ideas, results, conclusions, and opinions to other scientists. The author of this article, a middle school science teacher, describes how he uses…

The progress and effects of a collaborative study group as a method of job-embedded professional development were studied. Eight high school teachers representing a variety of disciplines and the author (a literacy specialist) met monthly as a collaborative group for one school year to investigate materials and methods for literacy strategy…

What are the most effective methods for teaching writing across grade levels and student populations? What kind of training do teachers need to put research-validated methods into practice? This unique volume combines the latest writing research with clear-cut recommendations for designing high-quality professional development efforts. Prominent…

In this study, we analyzed the quality of students' written scientific explanations found in notebooks and explored the link between the quality of the explanations and students' learning. We propose an approach to systematically analyzing and scoring the quality of students' explanations based on three components: claim, evidence to support it,…

This study compared the performance of students using the Science Writing Heuristic (SWH) approach and students using a standard or traditional laboratory curriculum on lecture exams and a laboratory practical exam on a specific topic, chemical equilibrium. The SWH helps students do inquiry science laboratory work by structuring the laboratory…

Addresses problems currently faced by writing labs: training staff, incorporating usable word processing, and establishing working relationships with both academic and nonacademic communities. (JAD)

Finds that the use of writing models influences the content and organization of students' research texts. Shows that seeing a proposition in the models increased the likelihood that students would include it in their texts. Finds no systematic benefits from labeling the models or from providing only good models. (SR)