Individuals interested in becoming translators should pursue a generalist arts and science background as undergraduates and begin professional study to become translators in graduate programs. Prospective translators first need the skills and knowledge learned in a good liberal arts education before acquiring skills necessary for accurate,…

English writing ability of Hispanic college candidates taking the College Board's English Composition Test (ECT) was studied. The performance of three groups on essay and multiple choice portions of the ECT were compared with each other and with performance on the same measures by ECT test takers as a whole. (Author/DWH)

"The Comprehension Toolkit" focuses on reading, writing, talking, listening, and investigating, to deepen understanding of nonfiction texts. With a focus on strategic thinking, this toolkit's lessons provide a foundation for developing independent readers and learners. It also provides an alternative to the traditional assign and correct…

This paper presents the findings of a qualitative, instrumental case study that examined students' academic preparedness, as well as assessment and placement policy in 15 community colleges in 6 states across the country. Although most community colleges mandate basic skills assessment for all entering freshmen, many do not require low-scoring…

According to 1995 data collected by the National Center for Educational Statistics, first-year students at public community colleges were twice as likely to be enrolled in a remedial education course than their public four-year counterparts. Ninety-five percent of community colleges offer remedial instruction, yet critics of the community college…

This curriculum package presents a curriculum guide, the lesson plan, handouts, transparencies, tests, and evaluation forms for use by instructors in customizing a course on business writing for workers in the textile industry. The introduction describes how the curriculum is developed, the contents of this curriculum package, and how to involve…

This booklet answers parents' questions about the following: Kentucky's Writing Portfolio program, the process which leads to effective writing, and the parent's role in the development of children's writing skills. The first section discusses the stages of the writing process (prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing) and how…

This teacher guide is meant to provide a rationale for an assessment model for Spanish writing. A wide variety of bilingual and English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) programs have emerged to meet this challenge, and writing is integral to these approaches because learning to write well in Spanish is often the key to academic success in English.…

Developed by classroom teachers during the development phase of Minnesota's Graduation Standards, this performance package is made up of locally designed assignments that, taken together, show whether a student has learned and can apply the knowledge and skills related to writing in the English language for a variety of academic purposes and…

This collection of articles includes: "Implementing Discourse Analysis for Intermediate and Advanced Language Learners" (Maria Palmira Massi); "A Comparison of Front-Page News in Japanese and British Quality Press Newspapers: Cultural Differences Reflected in the Press" (Christopher Bond); "Have You Ever Heard of Ogino…

This book focuses on constructing rubrics that assess students' literacy skills. Nine chapters include: (1) "Using Rubrics to Assess Literacy" (e.g., rubrics to assess authentic literacy and converting rubric scores); (2) "Using Rubrics to Assess Reading Comprehension" (e.g., examining the components of reading comprehension and how to use…

How kids spend summer vacation has a direct and powerful impact on their success in school. This document presents 8 brief (600-word) newspaper columns that offer parents simple tips on how to promote learning through everyday activities. Each column ends with a referral for free resources to keep children learning outside the classroom. The…

Supplementary to "NAEP 1996 Trends in Academic Progress," this report describes two aspects of writing for which change has been measured since 1984: writing fluency as determined by holistic scoring; and mastery of the conventions of written English as determined by mechanics scoring. The introduction discusses the layout and means of…

Aligned with its 1998 standards for first and second language learning, Alberta Learning has published lesson plans that aim for a closer relationship between learning and evaluation. Each volume in this series presents a specific task for students that involves planning, carrying out and evaluating their work. The task for eighth grade students…

Aligned with its 1998 standards for first- and second-language learning, Alberta Learning has published lesson plans that aim for a closer relationship between learning and evaluation. Each volume in this series presents a specific task for students that involves planning, carrying out, and evaluating their work. Three separate lesson plans in the…