Discusses the benefits of collaborative writing in a writing workshop and the value of a social cognitive approach to learning for middle school students. Examines a taped collaborative writing workshop to demonstrate themes of using exploratory talk to stimulate thinking, promoting conceptual understanding, internalizing language to gain…

Explains how teachers at Ramirez Elementary School in Lubbock (Texas) use thematic teaching to make connections across subject areas and to provide students with rich literacy instruction. Describes how these teachers implement social studies content to enhance their students' reading, writing, and thinking skills. Illustrates the power of…

Introduces the special issue on children's writing which contains seven articles that offer analytic portraits of the teaching and learning of writing from prekindergarten through seventh grade. Highlights the collective themes of a social perspective on writing, of children's diverse resources, and of the links between those resources and…

Writing is an integral part of science. The growth of scientific knowledge depends on scientists' ability to record their thoughts and discoveries for future scientists to build on. Everyday literacy is the basis of scientific literacy. In addition, writing about science helps students learn science. In order to transfer science concepts from what…

If writing matters, how can we improve it? This study investigated the nature of writing plan quality and its relationship to the ensuing writing scores. Data were drawn from the 1998 Provincial Learning Assessment Programme (PLAP) in Writing, which was administered to pupils in Grades 4, 7, and 10 across British Columbia, Canada. Common features…

Current research and legislation show a need for special education instruction to be more closely aligned with general education curriculum and develop strategies that support the development of self determination skills in students with disabilities. The present study embeds self-determination skills of writing annual goals and objectives in the…

Basic English Writing (BEW) courses have been part of English learning curricula in many universities. Some research has been conducted to investigate various class designs for English language courses. However, class designs for English writing are not yet abundantly developed to provide more experimental results. The purpose of this study was to…

This booklet is designed to help primary school teachers encourage and support children in learning to write during the first years of school. It discusses learning to write in the years before formal schooling, focusing on mediated contact with print, involvement in the everyday functions of print, experimentation with print, and support and…

Students are advised to enroll in WAC 101--a writing across the curriculum "Stretch" course--based upon SAT scores. Two types of "at risk" English composition students usually comprise a WAC 101 Stretch class. The first type are the familiar students who are underprepared for college writing courses, while the second are…

This guidebook explores the role of journal writing in community-service leadership and learning. Specifically, it offers suggestions to community-service leaders to help engage their teams in reflective journal writing. The introduction provides an overview of the history of journal-keeping. Chapter 1 provides a rationale for the use of…

A practicum developed and implemented a program to help change students' negative attitude toward writing, with the conviction that if students enjoy writing they will write more and produce writing that clearly communicates their ideas. The practicum's objectives were for 50% of the targeted students to: (1) write for at least 15-20 minutes at a…

One of a series of workplace education modules, this module includes activities and exercises for improving writing skills in the workplace. First, discussions of writing in the workplace are presented, highlighting tips for effective instruction, and of issues related to grading papers, including a sample evaluation form. Next, the assessment…

Designed to allow teachers immersed in Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) programs and those still contemplating increasing the use of writing in their courses to peer into classrooms of those who have participated in such programs for years, this book reports on the long-term impact upon faculty of WAC programs. The book studies WAC…

These three papers deal with ways to incorporate social studies into the language arts curriculum. The first paper, "What Social Studies Teachers Need To Know about Language Arts," provides suggestions on the writing process and how that process can be used in the social studies. Paper 2, "Applying Communications Activities to Learning Processes…

Ways to develop "creative automaticity" for writing in a foreign language are examined. The paper focuses on transactional writing (i.e., writing with the purpose of transferring precise information by such means as telex messages, business letters, memoranda, and short reports), and its main features of clarity and conventionality. It is noted…