Empirical studies on teaching content-area information to underachieving or mildly disabled students are reviewed. Instructional options include content reduction, learnable text, content enhancement, use of audiorecordings and computer-assisted instruction, and promoting use of cognitive and metacognitive strategies. A content enhancement model…

Describes a fictional science classroom/learning experience in which the teacher expresses mild surprise and pleasure at the way the children tend to steer the learning process themselves when they have a relevant purpose in mind. Argues that learning involves being able to express what one knows. (KEH)

Discusses the educational value of engaging mathematics students in writing a journal. Provides a table showing the relationship between writing topics and the potential benefits. (Author/YP)

Reports on characteristics of English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) writing assignments in graduate business courses, and discusses the different types of writing assignments, vocabulary used to label the assignments, and the use of prompts to guide the writing assignments. Implications for ESL writing courses for nonnative speakers entering business…

Describes students' attempts to use rhetorical analysis to study the professional communities they intend to enter. Asks whether analyzing discourse conventions can help students feel like initiates in their chosen profession, and explores how such analyses might contribute to writing-across-the-curriculum as a whole. (RS)

Presents a strategy to improve students' comprehension of content material by having them read, discuss, and give written responses to items pertaining to short content texts. (MG)

Describes the Critical Writing Program in the Catholic elementary schools in Arlington, Virginia, which teaches critical thinking through the process of writing. Illustrates the application of critical writing to history, science, and other subjects. Suggests ideas for "publishing" students' writing. (DMM)

Responses and rebuttals to a previous article regarding the role of academic writing in second language instruction raise issues concerning writing instruction practices and content area writing. (CB)

Describes a writing unit which coincided with an algebra unit on solving problems with two variables, in which students wrote down their reasons for choosing a particular multiple choice response, expressed an equation in writing, and wrote a six paragraph description of the solution to a problem. (RS)

Describes an action research project using Language for Understanding across the Curriculum to help year-seven students in a mathematics problem-solving unit. Strategies included unpacking the question, modeling the writing process, learning journals, glossaries, classroom charts, and the Newman Questioning Technique. Ability to explain…

Demonstrates how students' writings can be used to inform instruction and serve as the foundation for a teacher's portfolio on improving classroom practice. (MKR)

Analysis of in-class written responses about mathematical concepts and procedures for solving problems of 25 college students enrolled in an intermediate algebra class suggested that writing assignments helped remedial students to think mathematically. An appendix contains samples of writing assignments. (Author/MKR)

Describes a term paper assignment where students are allowed to pick a topic that interests them based upon the course focus and course format. Authors have found that, if students are interested in a topic and it is relevant to them, some of the onerousness that students associate with writing can be significantly reduced. (PR)

Provides descriptions of how five teachers in various content areas (mathematics, art, French, physics. and English) at one high school in Illinois feel about the importance of writing. Explains how these teachers incorporate their belief into everyday instruction in their areas. (HB)

Explores one kindergarten teacher's insights gained through the writing of her students. Shows that students were gaining a wealth of knowledge through meaningful engagement in literacy processes. Shows how, by recognizing the power of learning from young children, she gained greater insight into emergent literacy development and informed her…