The results of the 1979-80 reading and literature assessment conducted by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) are contained in this report. In addition to the national results, the report describes the performance of 9-, 13-, and 17-year-old students in various cohorts defined by geographic region, sex, race/ethnicity, parental…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) third writing assessment was administed to 9-, 13- and 17-year-old students in 1978-79. This volume contains the released exercises from this assessment. Part I summarizes objective and exercise development procedures, describes the different scoring procedures used in the writing assessments,…

It has been argued that nonstandard dialects interfere with the attainment of literacy. The proposition that black vernacular English (BVE) has a measurably significant effect on reading achievement has never been demonstrated, although it is a widely held belief. What studies do reveal is an equivocal relationship between dialect and achievement…

Intended for use with kindergarten through grade four students, this guide provides a number of ways for using newspapers in the classroom. The guide is designed to help teachers and students with ways of starting newspaper activities; with reading, writing, speaking, listening, and thinking opportunities; and with possibilities for making…

Intended for use with students in secondary school English and language arts classes, this guide provides a number of ways to use newspapers in the classroom. The guide is designed to help teachers and students with ways for starting newspaper activities; with reading, writing, speaking, listening, and thinking opportunities; and with…

This manual was developed to aid local school districts in complying with the requirement of California's Pupil Proficiency Law that districts provide extra help to students not making adequate progress towards basic skill mastery. Guidelines for the development of instructional packages keyed to the school districts proficiency tests, various…

As a follow-up to the Central Wisconsin Writing Project, a writing survey was prepared to (1) introduce the concept of writing across the curriculum to high school faculty in the district, (2) determine the district's need for inservice in writing across the curriculum, (3) establish the validity of the data, (4) collect information about writing…

An instructional sequence based largely on combining B. Bloom's six-level, instructional related hierarchy with J. Piaget's causal sequence of cognitive skill development is utilized in a three-day unit on the correct use of commas in lists. The sample unit follows G. Torkelson's guidelines for instructional development that include outlining the…

The first section of this paper notes that, out of the frustration they feel in lacking a coherent, definitive system for sequencing language instruction, English teachers sometimes turn to the system of grammar teaching used in the past. It then suggests that the English teaching profession is moving through a Romantic age toward a new Classical…

Language testing must be an integral component of any foreign language program. It should relate closely to the objectives of the program so that students are tested on what they practice in the classroom. Although language testing during the past few decades has been concerned primarily with measuring only linguistic knowledge, more consideration…

This report of the writing project at P.K. Yonge Laboratory School, University of Florida, examines the effectiveness of a systematic approach to teaching high school composition. The approach, which focuses on the skills that enable students to write clearly, correctly, and purposefully, includes sequential instructional units, considerable…

To assure that students graduating from the institutions of higher education in Georgia possess basic academic literacy, an essay test was devised to provide system-wide information on the status of student competence in the areas of reading and writing and to identify those students who do not attain the expected levels of competence. The…

Teachers in all disciplines must demand good writing from students if they want their writing to improve. When good writing is demanded only in English classes, students develop a double standard for their writing. To make teachers in other departments aware of their responsibility for the quality of student writing, English teachers can take the…

A course in communications skills for the biomedical sciences is a component unique to the New Mexico State University MARC Honors Undergraduate Program. The program seeks to identify and assist minority students who show evidence of having clear potential to perform at a high level in the biomedical sciences and who show a determination to enter…

The findings from a study of five students undertaken to determine how unskilled college writers compose, whether their writing processes can be analyzed in a systematic manner, and what an increased understanding of those processes suggests about the nature of composing and about the manner in which writing is taught are presented in this paper.…