Compared summaries produced by French as a first and second language secondary school students, according to ten variables evaluating the written texts. Statistical analyses, analysis of variance, t-tests, and correlation analysis of variable exploring both the language and the content of the summaries. Findings suggest that French as a second…

Describes a project in which elementary students develop their science understanding and literacy skills by developing their own book on the topics of solids, liquids, and gases. (WRM)

Discusses the possible impact of literacy education standards on children's understanding and perceptions of language with regard to science. Suggests using literacy education for reinforcement and stimulation of scientific knowledge and language. (WRM)

Describes the planning, implementation, and results of an experiment at Brooklyn Law School (New York) to teach legal writing skills by a simulation activity which integrates client interviewing skills with the process of composing the client-advice letter. Experience with this approach over three years is recounted. (DB)

Believes that psychology instructors must consider the various needs of international students in their classrooms. Provides suggestions for dealing with language and writing barriers and cultural methods of addressing instructors. Explains that instructors must also be aware of the U.S. immigration laws regarding full-time study status and school…

Investigates predicted and unpredicted changes learners undergo as they develop writing skills in English-as-a-foreign-language academic writing courses. Reports on qualitative data elicited from learners' self-reports, which yielded three perceived categories of changes: outcomes in writing in English, outcomes in writing in general, and…

Traces the history of reform in writing instruction and places it in the context of current educational reform initiatives. Examines the dilemmas teachers and teacher educators face as they balance their concern for maintaining and fostering what is known about the teaching and learning of writing with the growing focus on achievement on…

Presents a fictionalized dialogue loosely based on a meeting attended after writing tests had been piloted. Notes that some details have been added and enhanced to demonstrate the impact that state writing assessments with high stakes can have on classroom content. (SG)

Examines young children's communicative competence in schooled narrative and the nature of its development. Analyzes four stories for inclusion of a variety of linguistic markers that embody three essential features of schooled narrative--autonomy, conventionality, and specialized grammar. Suggests that the development of schooled narrative…

This essay explores the history of the parts of speech and how individual acquisition of grammar may recapitulate history's discovery of the parts of speech and their related patterns. This history of grammar has been incorporated into a program called "Keepers of Alexandria" that is used with at-risk 4th-6th graders to improve reading,…

Focuses on fifth- and sixth-grade students writing about music using three types of description: metaphor and emotion, analytic elements of music, and temporal change and sequence. (CMK)

Using FACETS, investigates how judgments of trained teacher raters are biased toward certain types of candidates and certain criteria in assessing Japanese second language writing. Explores the potential for using a modified version of a rating scale for norm-referenced decisions about Japanese second language writing ability. (Author/VWL)

The digital revolution makes it easy for students to plagiarize. Using Internet search engines, DVD-based reference works, online journals, Web-based news sources, article databases, and other electronic sources, students can find information about nearly any topic and paste the data directly into their papers. Or students can take credit for…

This paper describes a small-scale writing project in which a class of KS 2 primary pupils were invited to import their own narrative interests into a task designed by their teacher and the researcher within the constraints of the National Literacy Strategy. By employing an adventure genre, based on problem and puzzle solving, pupils were…

This paper will discuss the results of a project that enabled three faculty members from disparate disciplines: Social Work, Interpersonal Communication and Software Engineering, to enhance writing and critical thinking in their courses. The paper will address the Faculty-in-Residence project model, the activities taken on as a result of it, the…