Literacy should be viewed as the ability to enlist a repertoire of discourse forms to explore and extend thinking and learning. In this view of literacy and literacy learning, various forms of reading and writing are seen as distinct ways of knowing and acquiring knowledge for ones' own purposes. Supporting this view of literacy are theoretical…

A proposal for a term paper writing course associated with a content area course is presented in this paper. The paper outlines the proposed course, in which a content area teacher assigns a term paper and has control over appropriate subjects for the students' papers. The paper explains that the course provides help in library research…

Critical thinking skills were taught to students in a lower-track freshman English class through the use of cross-disciplinary subject matter. Given a set of three transmission electron micrographs, or photographs of magnified tissue used in histology and pathology, students were asked to support their conclusions on which two of micrographs A, B,…

Examining the impact of computers in language arts instruction, this journal issue focuses on the practical classroom use of computers. The essays discuss the following topics: (1) using the personal computer to organize the language arts curriculum; (2) computers in a writing project; (3) the potential of microcomputers for English classrooms;…

Intended to assist classroom teachers with promoting and improving children's writing, this book allows teachers to see other professionals and children solve problems that arise in the midst of both teaching and writing. In one sense it is a collection of workshops with the first part of the book emphasizing teacher activity and the second part…

A study was conducted to test the effectiveness of four instructional strategies on students' writing. Students, 138 fourth, sixth, and eighth graders in a semi-rural school district in southern California, were instructed in informational writing through one of four instructional strategies: (1) presentation of model pieces of writing; (2)…

Many intensive advanced English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) classes become boring for advanced ESL learners because the courses offer little opportunity for them to experience the interplay between language proficiency and background knowledge. The implementation of a sourcebook project can provide a renewing input into the curriculum for advanced…

Designed to assist primary teachers in creating a classroom environment that stimulates students' growth in writing, this guide offers suggestions, lists, charts, and activities for classroom use in the primary grades. Following a preface and philosophy, the first section discusses young writers and the writing process, with subsections on stages…

In the fifties and early sixties, United States colleges and universities shied away from courses about communist insurgencies because of the repressive influence of McCarthyism. Vietnam was eliminated from classroom investigation, forcing students to take the issues to the streets. In an effort to expose and examine issues that arose from the…

Relates the difficulties of teaching a college business writing course when the majority of the students are foreign. (NKA)

Investigates the thinking processes students employ and the text structures they produce in analytic writing. Contrasts eleventh grade students' analytic and summary writing using think-aloud protocols and examination of genre conventions governing students' writing. Concludes that in analytic writing, students employed more varied and complex…

Analysis of content area writing of Arab university students (N=96) studying English for Academic Purposes revealed problems in three major categories: sentence structure, paragraph structure, and content. Weakness in foreign language writing skills appeared related to weakness in mastery of Arabic writing skills. (Author/CB)

Investigates the relationship between topic-specific background knowledge and measures of overall quality, coherence, syntactic complexity, audience, and function in the expository writing of tenth grade students. (HOD)

Describes the use of writing activities as tools for teaching mathematics while helping students develop communication and reasoning skills. Writing takes the form of formal essays about mathematical problems, writing to prompts, or focused journal writing. Students learn to clarify, refine, and consolidate thinking. Children learn mathematics…

Urges history teachers to be more cognizant of the methods involved in the writing-across-the-curriculum movement. Suggests that these methods could provide students with the opportunity to learn history independently. Outlines the steps taken to implement these methods. (KO)