A study examined: (1) first-year college students and their perceptions of writing; (2) teaching assistants and their discursive preferences; and (3) possible limitations in the program's approach toward portfolio assessment. The study began with the examination of narration, persuasion, and analysis papers from six freshman portfolios. These…

With teacher assistance and computer availability, composition students may use the World Wide Web as a valuable learning tool in the networked composition classroom and during personal studying time. The paper offers a list of six online providers and the number of subscribers for each. The paper then presents 118 selected web sites, including:…

Since her Certificates in General Education for Adults class had not achieved the required competencies at writing for self-expression, a teacher felt it would be an appropriate genre for her to model. She drafted, edited, and completed the text on a large-screen computer. When trying to decide whether each text achieved the competencies required…

This brief report presents information on the extent to which families are engaged in literacy activities with their 3- to 5-year-olds who are not yet enrolled in kindergarten. It also presents information on signs of emerging literacy, such as whether children recognize letters, can write their own names, or read or pretend to read. The report…

The National Education Goals Panel has not met its goal of having every adult American literate by the year 2000. There are many adults who "slipped through the cracks," and have only rudimentary reading and writing skills. The large number of foreign born residents who do not have the necessary reading and writing skills to communicate…

This report describes a program that will improve reading comprehension. The targeted population consists of second grade students at a rural northwestern Illinois school. Evidence for the existence of reading problems included daily teacher observations, student reading surveys, and assessments that indicated the level of student reading…

This book contains hands-on language arts activities for K-3 children. Activities in the book help develop skills in the six language arts while continually reinforcing how much fun learning can be. The book's teacher-friendly format breaks down each activity into the following components: objectives, materials, preparation, procedure, summary,…

This book presents the components of Success for All and Roots & Wings, two comprehensive restructuring programs for elementary schools designed to make the idea that all children can learn a practical, daily organizing principle, especially in schools serving students at risk. Success for All, first implemented in 1987, was created to show…

This study explores the complex interaction and individuality of students in a community college basic writing class. Students represented a diverse population in terms of age and ethnicity. The research makes use of informal and formal modes of writing in the classroom as a way to understand writing as both an individual activity and as a social…

This study investigated differences in the product and process of evaluating second language compositions by Taiwanese speakers of English. It examined whether such factors as language background (native English speaker versus native Chinese speaker), academic discipline, and educational background affected raters' scoring outcomes; whether rating…

This checklist is designed to help develop writing strategies for English language learners (ELLs), focusing on a variety of linguistic strategies inherent in the writing process. It provides them with a graphical representation of the cognitive process involved in complex writing, promoting self-assessment strategies and integrating oral…

This book provides theoretically informed guidance to practicing the key research methods for investigating society and culture. It is a text in both methods and methodology, in which the importance of understanding the historical, theoretical and institutional context in which particular methods have developed is stressed. The contributors of the…

Designed for use by General Educational Development (GED) program teachers in GED classrooms, this set of learning materials provide learners with practice in graph and chart reading, calculation, analyzing information, and writing, while they examine the labor market, role of higher education, and economic impact of the GED. Unit 1, The Labor…

Noting that much has been written about children who have difficulty learning to read but little has been written about children who are fluent early readers, this book explores why some children succeed in reading at a very early age. The book resulted from a 3-year research project that studied the progress of 29 English children before they…

This study examined the changes adult English as a Second Language learners made to a text when writing collaboratively, how learners initiated change, what reasons learners gave for changes they made when writing collaboratively, and the effectiveness of Lotus ScreenCam for researching collaborative computer based writing tasks. Analysis of data…