A study investigated how students' mental representation of an expository text and the inferences they used in summarizing varied as a function of text difficulty and of differences in the task. Subjects, 96 college students and students from grades 6 and 10, wrote summaries of expository texts and answered orally several probe questions about the…

Research has suggested that students have difficulty completing content area writing assignments if the teacher's written instructions are not clear. Students' written work is more likely to be of higher quality if teachers specify the assignment's audience and purpose and offer prewriting instruction. Controversy exists over how explicit the…

Focusing on the development of students' writing skills and on the instructional techniques used to promote those skills, this report relates the findings of the second phase of the National Study of Writing in the Secondary School. In addition to further analysis of data collected during the first phase of the study, the report provides…

Contains annotations of books from five countries--Australia, Canada, England, New Zealand, and United States. Annotations are arranged in following categories: (1) Teaching Theory and Practice; (2) Reading, Writing, and Speaking; (3) Fiction; (4) Poetry; (5) Drama; (6) Course and Source Books; (7) Media and Computers; and (8) Reference Books.…

Describes a two-year study of one college student's efforts to produce appropriate content area writing in different disciplines. Using observation, interviews, composing-aloud protocols, and text analysis, evaluates the student's performance according to the Gricean rubric of conversation. Concludes that success was affected by unarticulated…

This paper highlights the substantial overlap in recommended practices from two emerging areas of educational research: research on the academic literacy development of adolescents and research on English language learners (ELLs) in secondary schools. Specifically, this paper examines instructional principles related to the connection between…

Describes an activity to develop students' skills of observation and recordkeeping by studying the growth of a tree's leaves during the spring. Children monitor the growth of 11 tress over a 2-month period, draw pictures of the tree at different stages of growth, and write diaries of the tree's growth. (MDH)

Attempts to distinguish between the lecture method and the constructivist approach, in general, and by citing classroom scenarios. The author cautions those whose writing seems to unintentionally endorse traditional lecture and drill and practice methods. (MKR)

Individual students in two different sections of an undergraduate civil engineering laboratory were tasked with preparing three professional-quality laboratory reports. The teaching assistant and/or instructor used established criteria to grade the first two reports prepared by students in one section. The first two reports prepared by students in…

Detailing the many ways that reading and writing interact with and support learning, this book is about the role of literacy in subject area learning. Three features of the book are designed to guide teachers' reflective thought and assist them in transferring ideas from the book to their teaching repertoire and classroom: "double entry…

Strategies to address the reading and writing needs of reluctant and hesitant students with limited English proficiency (LEP) are provided in this guide for teachers. It is drawn from experiences with six elementary school teachers and an elementary school principal in San Antonio in the Southwest Independent School District/University of Texas…

Estuaries are marine systems that serve as nurseries for animals, links in the migratory pathways, and habitat for a complex community of organisms. This curriculum guide intended for use at the high school level seeks to teach what estuaries are; provide opportunities to practice decision-making that affects estuaries; and encourage students to…

Noting that television is a medium ripe for exploitation by teachers because children are already motivated to watch, this handbook presents over 20 activities and teaching techniques centering around teaching students at all levels to write for television. An introduction presents background information on benefits of using television writing in…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 30 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) writing performance and its relationship to the writing attitudes, topic knowledge, and writing goals of college freshmen; (2) representational semantics; (3)…

Intended for teachers of grades 7-16, this book discusses "heuristic" writing--writing that produces new, irreversible knowledge for the writer leading to a fuller understanding of the self and of the act of writing--as well as principles and practices having direct implications for a wide range of students. Chapter 1 examines the…