Describes a ghost story writing contest developed by The St. Joseph County Public Library (South Bend, IN) and created to encourage students in grades three to eight to practice writing and to recognize talented writers. Sidebars present a contest timetable and a list of judging criteria for librarians interested in starting writing contests. (JMV)

A model of writing instruction integrating word processing, strategy instruction, and a process approach, within a social context for writing as a meaningful task, was tested with 113 elementary students with learning disabilities. Students in experimental classes made greater gains in quality of their narrative and informative writing than did…

Describes an at-home project whereby students collaborate with their parents in writing a book, and the resulting books are shared at year's end. Involves parents and students in signing performance contracts, developing reading and writing, and sharing skills. (ET)

Reviews and updates handwriting research conducted in the 1980s, adding two categories of research efforts to previous work: the use of mental models in forming letters during handwriting instruction; and handwriting instruction for special needs populations such as adult literacy and learning disabled students, remedial education students, and…

Strategies are presented for using dialog journals to improve the written communication skills of students with hearing impairments. The strategies involve using dialog journals not only in self-contained classrooms but also in resource rooms and inclusive environments, including the regular education teacher as a third person, and having deaf…

College student self-evaluations can assist in institutional outcomes assessment by helping educators understand the content, context, and process of learning at both individual and institutional levels, and from the perspective of either research or assessment. Currently, self-assessment is used primarily in evaluating broad learning outcomes,…

Discusses the nature of good writing strategies, illustrates principles of correction and evaluation, and describes the elements of a writing curriculum for college students of Italian. The author suggests a series of writing activities and evaluation criteria to assess writing proficiency at beginning and intermediate levels. (26 references) (CK)

Describes the use of student-led conferences in place of traditional teacher-parent conference. Notes that conferences reflect curricular change to reading and writing workshops and thematic studies, belief that students should take responsibility for their own literacy behaviors, and use of portfolio assessment. (TM)

Examines introductions to research articles written by three international graduate students and identifies three basic problems. Student and nonnative writers may have difficulty with handling both the hierarchical as well as the linear structure of written discourse, especially introductions that create problems for both the writer and the…

Explores the development of a literature-based writing unit with computers for at-risk students through the creation of a Literacy Club. Suggests that current technology can provide the incentive required before at-risk students become willing participants in literary experiences. Literary Clubs can provide a rich context for learning to write…

Describes the practices of an eighth-grade English teacher who emphasizes a language-rich curriculum and how she balances reading and writing activities; also discussed are how she integrates grammar instruction, parent involvement, modeling of effect writing practices, core readings, peer conferences, teacher-student trust, individualized…

Describes a fourth-grade project at Malcom Price Lab School at the University of Northern Iowa in which students write and produce a community brochure about their hometown, Cedar Falls, Iowa. The brochure provides a "kid's eye-view" of Cedar Falls' history, cultural events, and recreational activities and is distributed by local…

A 6-year-old child's oral and spelled utterances were compared over a 3-month period as he was trained to use facilitated communication (FC). The child's language with FC was significantly better than his oral language. Evidence that he was authoring his own messages included his eventual ability to type messages without physical support.…

When teaching writing, most high school English teachers encourage students to express their feelings. The paper discusses the evolution of process writing, which is a belief that writing is a process of discovery and not a product. The paper questions process writing, suggesting it adversely affects clarity, structure, and thought. (SM)

A study investigated the relationship between university students' individual writing process skill and product quality in Japanese and either English or Chinese. Results show no clear relationship between process and product but show similarity in writing process across languages and correlation between general Japanese language skill and written…