Parents can help their children prepare for the future by providing them with a literate home environment. The article suggests that parents model literacy at home, make time for reading and writing, create a literate environment, strengthen bonds while developing skills, and find meaning in reading and writing. (SM)

Argues that, when instructors consider only the socially constructed in their classrooms, the intricacies of individuals are lost. Points out that, when teachers think students are completing assignments, the students are actually completing their own understanding of the assignment. Suggests that instructors explain repeatedly what they expect of…

Finds that students were on-task even when they were silent or when there was a lot of noise in the room; reluctance to answer questions of participate in oral interactions were not necessarily the result of a lack of comprehension; and monolingual students were sensitive to the capabilities of the LEP students. (RS)

Ten Spanish adolescents with profound, prelingual hearing impairments received instruction in organizing their written stories. Instruction emphasized the importance of the narrative structure and the writing process and offered different activities about the narrative text. Some of the students improved the quality of their writing and their…

Assessment is discussed as a key part of instruction. Several evaluation approaches are described, such as process approach to writing instruction, talking about writing, writing about what has been written including progress logs and self-reflective essays, and portfolio evaluation. (15 references) (LB)

Presents a dialogue between a university faculty member and an elementary teacher. Explores the rich relationship afforded by collaborative efforts. Demonstrates how the connections of methods courses to classroom settings can strengthen preservice training for beginning teachers. (HB)

Interviews elementary children about their fiction writing to gain a glimpse into how writing teachers might improve their teaching. Found the following three features in students' growing knowledge of characters: characters can elicit readers' empathy, can change the attitude of the readers, and can have a mind of their own. (MG)

Argues that teachers can help students develop writing competence by stressing social aspects of language and learning. Describes the mutual teacher-student negotiation observed in two elementary schools. Shows that student writing can improve through the creation of a community of children supportive of one another's language efforts. (SG)

Deaf students in grades 6-8 issued a newspaper as a regular part of the English curriculum. The project involved making a trip to a newspaper publisher, setting aside a "newsroom" classroom area, selecting staff, brainstorming story ideas, learning to use the Newsroom computer program, writing, editing, and planning the layout. (JDD)

Presents annotations of nine documents and journal articles from the ERIC database that discuss the theory and rationale for exploiting the connections between reading and writing and ways to stress the connection through the use of integrated reading and writing. (MG)

Several elementary teachers present school-tested ideas for student assessment and activities for teaching writing. The article describes how one school conducted student assessment using a new checklist system and portfolios. Information is presented on schools that integrated literature, art, life skills, math, and role playing to teach writing.…

Forty-eight elementary children with hearing impairments were assigned to either computer-assisted instruction or small-group instruction and workbooks, for math or language arts. Results showed that computer-assisted instruction did not affect improvement in written language skills or standardized achievement tests but did show positive effects…

Interviews Lisa Delpit from the Institute for Urban Research at Morgan State University. Argues that many nonmainstream children need explicit instruction in literacy conventions and strategies to gain access to the culture of power. (MG)

Discusses Barrett Wendell's theory of discourse, including a critique of his definitions and an assessment of his discourse scheme. Challenges the image of Wendell as a technocrat who never rose above a consideration of style to examine more significant rhetorical issues. (MG)

Discusses how the computer can be used to help students learn to revise their writing through peer review, rereading their writing, and reacting and reshaping their writing in response to their peer's comments. (MG)