Focuses on how teaching experience at a newly implemented second language writing center contributed towards personal theory development of English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) writing for three teachers. Combined the literature on teacher knowledge with ESL writing to study teachers' changing beliefs about ESL writers, readers, texts, and contexts.…

Reports on the efficacy of interventions made to improve the attrition rates of students of Japanese as a foreign language at the University of Sydney, Australia. Specifically, the study sought to evaluate differences in outcomes between students with a background in a morphographic writing system and those without such a background. (Author/VWL)

Presents the position of the International Reading Association and the National Association for the Education of Young Children regarding early-literacy development to guide teachers of young children in schools and early childhood programs. Presents rationale and supporting research for their position. Describes early-literacy development and…

Presents the reflections of two ninth-grade students as they developed and implemented writing workshops for grade 2 and 3 classrooms. Notes that most of the mini-lessons worked, but some were not as successful. Notes the amazement of the authors regarding the positive relationships with teachers, students, and administrators that came out of the…

Discusses 7 questions developed by the author to evaluate web sites. Offers a list of 42 web sites in several categories useful to middle school teachers both for classroom use and professional development: super-linkers (indexes of useful sites); reference materials; writing instruction; literacy, reading, and literature; and educational…

Describes how the author's 6 middle school students living in a village in the Yukon, 100 miles off the road system just below the arctic circle, enthusiastically wrote stories or poems about their lives. The students shared their works via an online electronic conferencing system with students from the unimaginably different landscape of the…

Explores the portfolio process as an evaluation tool for authentic assessment of writing. Discusses (1) current literature related to use of portfolios; (2) the critical elements of the portfolio process; (3) their relationship to the authentic assessment of writing; and (4) effective ways of implementing individual educational portfolios for…

Discusses development of an integrated peer writing assistant program. Student feedback indicates out-of-class peer review is beneficial to them. Writing assistants reported their skills also improved from working with their peers. Offers suggestions for development, coordination, implementation, and integration of a successful peer writing…

Introduces the special issue on children's writing which contains seven articles that offer analytic portraits of the teaching and learning of writing from prekindergarten through seventh grade. Highlights the collective themes of a social perspective on writing, of children's diverse resources, and of the links between those resources and…

Suggests that the direct teaching of written language features is no substitute for extensive experience of written language. Gives a brief preliminary account of a recent Centre for Language in Primary Education (CLPE) research project on the influence of children's reading of literature on their writing at Key Stage 2. Highlights the value of…

Describes a first-grade teacher's collaboration with a university professor to combine a supportive classroom with on-the-spot conferencing and publishing to support and document growth in student writing. Discusses underlying theories of the practice and illustrates the four-step process for conferencing and publishing. Asserts that on-the-spot…

Discussion of assistive technology for students with learning disabilities in general education classrooms first reviews computer supports for writing including talking word processors, word prediction software, portable note-taking devices, prewriting organizers, multimedia prewriting prompts, and editing/publishing software. It then considers…

Recognition is increasing that Ph.D. graduates require transferable skills for employment within or outside academia, and professional written communication skills form an important subset which contributes to many other skill categories. Writing journal articles for publication is a key task within candidatures and research workplaces, so…

An important goal in preventing writing disabilities is to provide effective early instruction to at-risk students to maximize their writing development. This study examined whether or not explicitly teaching six at-risk second-grade writers, including children with disabilities, how to plan and draft stories would improve their story writing as…

The inquiry science process provides a perfect opportunity for students to practice relational meaning in language. As students design their experiments, negotiate their ideas with peers, and share their data and conclusions, they sharpen both their reading and written communication skills. This process needs to be mediated by having the teacher…