Writing--and lots of it in all genres--is at the heart of the language arts curriculum and the skills of critical thinking that students need to develop to become prepared consumers and citizens. In this article, the author reflects on her growth as a writer and teacher, and offers an overview of what people know about writing, what they need to…

This article describes a research study exploring the question: What influence will reading and discussing traditional literature have upon students' narrative writing? The setting for the study was a fifth grade classroom that was part of a university laboratory school. Students listened to and discussed Native American folktales and then wrote…

The article reports on a project conducted with a group of MA-ELT students during their teaching practicum. Many student-teachers, like many teachers in general, rarely see and hear themselves or experience the lessons they conduct from the other side of the fence. When teachers themselves are asked to do the things they normally assign to their…

This study aimed at finding out whether there were significant differences in achievement between English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) freshman students exposed to traditional in class writing instruction depending on the textbook only, and those exposed to a combination of traditional in-class instruction and Web-based instruction in writing. All…

Error correction research has focused mostly on whether teachers should correct errors in student writing and how they should go about it. Much less has been done to ascertain L2 writing teachers' perceptions and practices as well as students' beliefs and attitudes regarding error feedback. The present investigation seeks to explore the existing…

Since instruction in writing theory and pedagogy for preservice teachers is often limited, it is essential that teacher educators provide learning experiences that are supported by research in effective teacher preparation and make maximum impact in the time available. One of the experiences that has been identified as holding promise for…

This article outlines the experiences of a first-year writing program's adoption of large-scale portfolio assessment as part of its move from student-focused assessment to programmatic assessment. This research is an attempt to provide evidence to support the claims benefits associated with portfolio assessment and to chronicle the changes that…

If writing matters, how can we improve it? This study investigated the nature of writing plan quality and its relationship to the ensuing writing scores. Data were drawn from the 1998 Provincial Learning Assessment Programme (PLAP) in Writing, which was administered to pupils in Grades 4, 7, and 10 across British Columbia, Canada. Common features…

Seeking renewed articulation of praxis in cross-linguistic on texts, I turn to postcolonality, social theory, and feminism to illuminate and critique common practices with language--learning, teaching, and writing. Additionally drawing on my experience teaching immigrant youth and adults in the US, I reiterate and attempt to answer Gayatri…

Using recent experience at Carleton College in Minnesota as a case history, the authors offer a model for assessment that provides more flexibility than the well-known assessment feedback loop, which assumes a linear progression within a hierarchical administrative structure. The proposed model is based on a double helix, with values and feedback…

English language learners are frequently unable to benefit from the prevailing process-writing approaches due to a lack of grammar and vocabulary knowledge relevant to academic writing. This paper describes how the need for explicit grammar instruction as part of preparing students to write can be addressed by using a collection of learner texts…

As words fly onto the computer screen, revolve, and dissolve, image, sound, and movement enter school classrooms in "new" and significant ways, ways that reconfigure the relationship of image and word. In this paper I discuss these "new" modal configurations and explore how they impact on students' text production and reading…

Examines the philosophy behind development of two team-taught courses in scientific writing: one for first-year students, the second for advanced students preparing for graduate and professional careers in science. Using student self-evaluations, course evaluations, and anecdotal evidence, chronicles some strengths and weaknesses of our ten-year…

The purpose of Study 1a was to determine the criteria that differentiate students who perform well and those who perform poorly on a standardized test of university-level writing. Discriminant function analysis revealed that measures of structure, sentencing, paragraphing, and grammar play the most important role in separating these two groups.…

In this article, the author describes how he had revised his course expectations and English teaching methods in Room 109 at Mountain Valley High School in Rumford, Maine, with support from the writing center staff. He instituted thematic portfolios, self-selected reading with a wide range of projects in response to that reading, periodic student…