The teaching of discourse features which affect the relations among sentences in a paragraph has often been delayed until students are considered advanced. Yet, because control of such features is considered essential to gaining control of language segments, instruction in these features should be given from the beginning. One category of…

Designed to enable special needs students to understand and complete various job-related forms, this set of activities devoted to forms encountered before and after one obtains a job is the fifth in a nine-unit secondary level careers course intended to provide handicapped students with the knowledge and tools necessary to succeed in the world of…

California's Pupil Proficiency Law requires each local school district to adopt standards of proficiency in the basic skills of reading comprehension, writing, and computation. Students are to be assessed in grades 4-11. Students not making sufficient progress towards meeting the district's standards are to be provided with remedial programs, and…

Written in terms of behavioral objectives, the teaching strategies in this guide are divided into nine areas: the parts of speech, the basic sentence pattern, literary genre and their elements, composition, creative writing, vocabulary development, literature, library systems, and punctuation. Following each stated objective are suggested…

An overview of the assessment of the basic skills of prospective secondary level education students at Pennsylvania State University is provided in this paper. Assessment in the areas of reading, writing, and speaking was conducted as a response to public criticism of teachers' skills and as a means of meeting a competency requirement in the…

As part of a study of the basic skills of secondary level education students, a study was conducted at Pennsylvania State University of the writing ability of prospective secondary level teachers. Raters holistically scored writing samples of 43 preservice teachers of English, mathematics, science and social studies. When writing scores of all…

A study was undertaken to determine (1) whether community college freshmen who perceive certain structural considerations in their reading can generate essays that show application of those considerations, and (2) whether there are significant differences in the writing achievement of "more able" and "less able" students. The experimental group…

This report provides articles on several topics related to the education of young children. In the introduction High/Scope President David P. Weikart suggests that public investment in preschool education is a wise and economically sound social policy. New studies of the long term effects of preschool are demonstrating the staying power of early…

Addressing the issue of testing and evaluation in English at the university level, this paper focuses on the development and use of the English Placement Test developed by the California State University system. The discussion of this testing program is placed within a framework of four testing principles: testing is an essential part of learning…

Offered as a guide for parents, community members, school boards, and administrators, as well as teachers, this book suggests that elementary reading and writing ability is not sufficient preparation for today's world and that literacy instruction cannot be improved without a drastic alteration in the methods most schools employ. Part one…

This pamphlet is the fourth in a series of ten stemming from the view that language is central to learning, that teachers can gain insights into their work and into learning by examining the language of the classroom, and that current language theory can be the means to such insights. The pamphlet presents a case study of a third grade student…

This pamphlet is the sixth in a series of ten stemming from the view that language is central to learning, that teachers can gain insights into their work and into learning by examining the language of the classroom, and that current language theory can be the means to such insights. The pamphlet outlines a students-helping-students program for…

CAUGHT IN THE PRESSURE FOR TEACHING MORE EXPOSITORY PROSE, THE HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH TEACHER IS IN DANGER OF REQUIRING A KIND OF COMMUNICATION FROM STUDENTS THAT DEADENS THEIR CREATIVITY. HOWEVER, WHEN CREATIVE WRITING IS TAUGHT WELL, IT REQUIRES AS MUCH STUDENT EFFORT AND PLANNING AS DOES EXPOSITORY WRITING. THE TEACHER CAN BEST TEACH CREATIVE…

A STUDY OF THE SPECIFIC BACKGROUND CHARACTERISTICS OF WRITING GROUPS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI WAS CONDUCTED IN ORDER TO DETERMINE THE BACKGROUND PROFILE OF INDIVIDUALS WHO ARE CONSIDERED POOR WRITERS, I.E., STUDENTS WHO RECEIVED D OR E IN WRITING FOR THE SEMESTER PRIOR TO THIS STUDY. DATA OBTAINED FROM STUDENT ANSWERS TO A QUESTIONNAIRE ARE…

RESEARCH IN WHICH BEHAVIOR THEORY WAS APPLIED TO TEACHING READING, WRITING, AND ARITHMETIC TO RETARDED CHILDREN IS REPORTED. TWENTY- SEVEN EDUCABLY RETARDED CHILDREN PARTICIPATED IN THE CORE GROUP. THE MEAN MENTAL AGE WAS 11 YEARS AND THE MEAN IQ WAS 63. IN AN EXPERIMENTAL ENVIRONMENT OF APPROVAL, ENCOURAGEMENT, AND TOKEN REINFORCEMENT, A…