This report on basic skills training at Norfolk State University (Virginia) profiles current activities and ascertains the perceptions of the faculty in order to develop general guidelines that might be useful for continued planning. Data from 107 questionnaires completed by Norfolk faculty show that they regard basic skills as critical for…

Using data from three studies, this paper focuses on competency education trends in California in the area of writing. The studies reviewed in the paper examined (1) the competency examinations produced by students in one high school in 1980, (2) the various means employed in 1981 by five school districts in the San Francisco Bay area to implement…

Recognizing that language itself is not an isolated entity but part of a larger social, cultural, and cognitive context, the papers in this book investigate the relationships among all aspects of language--reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Literacy is dealt with as the development of language in young children. Issues related to this…

To evaluate the impact of revision--as distinct from other writing enrichment activities such as peer or teacher feedback--on writing skills, two classes of college-bound high school seniors who voluntarily enrolled in a writing course, were given similar instruction in writing evaluation and skill development. While both classes were permitted to…

Problem solving skills such as patterning facts, locating problems, separating problems and solutions, and presenting effective written products are essential to success in the business community. Facts can be patterned using a grid relating a problem's effect at the individual, group, situational, and organizational level. Such a grid tests each…

Emphasizing the interrelationships of listening, speaking, reading, and writing, this curriculum guide for the New Orleans (Louisiana) Public Schools provides a comprehensive language program for each grade level from kindergarten through grade 6. Following brief statements of philosophy and objectives, the bulk of the guide is devoted to…

A case study approach was used to explore the sources of negative attitudes toward writing of three unskilled college freshman writers. The studies included interviews both with the students concerning their writing histories and with their former high school English teachers. In addition, information was gathered about their verbal abilities and…

There has been a remarkable amount of production and publication of children's poetry since the 1960s. One of the early, popular anthologies of children's poetry was "Miracles" (Simon & Shuster, 1966), with poems from English-speaking countries revealing how imaginative children could be and their use of metaphors. "The Me Nobody Knows: Children's…

A study was initiated at University College of the University of Cincinnati to test the effect of composing and revising at a computer on the writing performance of developmental English students. Students enrolled in English for Effective Communication (EEC I) were divided into three groups: a control group that did not use the computer at all; a…

This booklet provides Grade 6 teachers, administrators, and students with samples of students' writing that exemplify the criteria used to score students' written responses on the June 1988 Grade 6 English Language Arts Achievement Test. The writing assignment required students to read the beginning of a story and use their imaginations to…

A study investigated the thinking processes of 14 Anglophone students of French performing challenging reading and summarizing tasks in their first and second languages. Individuals proved to use equivalent higher-order problem-solving strategies while writing and reading in both languages. Strategies varied with the individuals' levels of…

A year-long study of the writing development of 27 first through third graders in an English/Spanish bilingual program was conducted during the 1980-81 school year. Samples of the children's writing were collected at four intervals, coded for computer tallying, and analyzed in terms of code-switching, spelling, punctuation and segmentation,…

Standardized tests represent one way of obtaining assessment information. Yet in recent years educators and the public have voiced concerns about an overriding emphasis on tests and test scores. Pressure to "teach to the test" means that not enough time is spent on higher order thinking and literacy skills because minimal competencies…

A study examined factor structure invariance among the writing skills of graduating High School Seniors and Adult High School Non-Completers. The study had three purposes: (1) to use LISREL confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) procedures to specify and test a series of factor models based on the test specifications content of the General Educational…

Because of consistent faculty involvement from its earliest stages, the writing assessment program at the University of Missouri at Kansas City (UMKC) represents a competent, fair, and useful procedure for the large-scale testing and evaluation of student writing. UMKC's assessment curriculum builds on the existing sequence of three composition…