This Writing Instructional Intervention Supplement from the Mississippi Department of Education contains benchmarks, informal assessments, and suggested teaching strategies for the fourth through eighth grades. Benchmarks outline what students should know and be able to do to meet mandated competencies. Informal and observational assessments…

Based on the understanding that writing should not be confined to the language arts classroom, this book provides over 200 examples of how 12 different strategies can be used in kindergarten through high school classrooms. The writing strategies in the book demonstrate how writing can also be employed as a powerful tool for processing new…

Designed to help teachers develop instructional practices that enable students to become more active learners of content, this handbook provides elementary, middle school, and secondary teachers with strategies for integrating reading and writing as tools for learning in the content areas. The handbook describes literacy strategies that have the…

Describes a format for assignments that trains students to write short, persuasive essays. Essay topics address how software available in the computing lab can use a computing technique. Points are scored by making multiple concise arguments that answer different aspects of the essay question. (PVD)

Offers a supplementary approach to teaching literacy narratives that builds on the work of M. Soliday and others but is centered in student production. Outlines specific strategies for teaching the literacy narrative in the first-year composition classroom. Discusses possible benefits of teaching the student production of literacy narratives.…

Two studies of intermediate grade students with and without learning and writing disabilities evaluated the Self-Regulated Strategy Development model in teaching students how to plan persuasive essays before and during composing. Instructional effects were investigated using different research designs, in different settings, and with different…

Discusses research on the role of audience awareness in writing and human cognition, arguing that developmental writers exhibit egocentric tendencies and assume that the readers do not need elaboration or transitions. Describes four subskills of audience awareness: clear execution, adequate content, perspective differentiation, and role taking.…

Describes an approach for using portfolio evaluations with developmental students. Indicates that it includes a system for analyzing and practicing five areas of writing: form, function, authorial attitude, method of development, and point of view. Reviews benefits of the approach and provides charts of portfolio activities. (AJL)

This article describes an intervention study designed to enhance the skills needed in the planning and writing of stories by an adolescent with autism who was using augmentative and alternative communication and working with a typical peer. Overall, the student's postintervention story was dramatically improved over his preintervention story.…

Understanding the interrelationships that exist between a writer or speaker, audience, and subject is essential to growth in discourse and writing. Because students in K-12 classrooms respond primarily to teacher questions, they get little practice in assessing audience. Computers and particularly "cybercafe" e-mail can facilitate…

Describes strategies parents can use to teach English to children with deafness or those hard of hearing. Strategies include modeling reading and writing, communicating with the child in writing, providing word-rich books and writing supplies, playing word-based games, and learning special techniques for reading to and with the child. (CR)

This study reports results of student graphing of writing after brief free writing periods in the 4th grade. An examination of writing samples over time from students with the highest and lowest writing rates showed improved writing quality in terms of more concrete details and more sophisticated organization. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)

Investigates the impact of task definition on students' revising strategies. Finds that texts written by students who receive instruction on global revision are judged both to be of significantly better quality and include significantly more global revisions than students who were simply asked to make the text better. (MG)

In 1987, a Dallas (Texas) elementary school principal developed a Writing to Read to the Principal program to motivate students' mastery of reading and writing in a school where over 80 percent of the students are economically disadvantaged. The program has strengthened the bond among students, parents, teachers, and the principal. Includes six…

Describes the problem-solving approach implemented in the University of Manitoba's first-year technical communication course. Considers technical writing as a process which can be broken down into steps: classify, analyze, test, and solve. Explains that this process offers students the methodology and flexibility they need to solve either…