CraftPlus[R] is an integrated learning package that consists of a K-8 spiraling, core writing curriculum based on explicit Target-Skills instruction; professional books; grade-level Curriculum Guides; sixteen workshop and classroom demonstration DVDs; and a CD with student samples and other classroom support materials. The grade-level Curriculum…

The current study aims at investigating the effect of a suggested CALL program on developing EFL learners' mechanics of writing in English. An unbiased simple random sample of eighty fourth-year students (2006/2007) of the English Department at the Faculty of Education in Kafr El-Sheikh has been chosen to carry out the experiment. Forty students…

Results from this study suggest teachers believe technology may provide English language learners (ELLs) an advantage in developing writing skills. Using a theoretical framework by Hadaway, Vardell, and Young (2002) citing seven teacher practices that support the writing of ELL students when writing processes are embedded in real-world activities,…

The study examined an ESL writing class, which consisted of 36 students, at a community college of Hong Kong. The students took part in three online collaborative writing tasks by sending drafts to peers who gave them suggestions and comments for improvement and working together on the completion of the writing tasks via email. The 36 students…

The transition to adult life for students with reading and writing challenges is an area that is not often addressed. The purpose of this article is to relate the informal assessment process to the broader context of high stakes assessment, high school exit exams, diploma options, and transition planning; identify the competencies needed for a…

Richard Gambino's "Blood of My Blood" was of help to a writing instructor coming to terms with the role that her Italian ethnicity played in her life and education. Gambino's understanding of the inner tensions experienced by an individual who must negotiate between two cultures has helped the instructor in teaching working-class and…

This book presents a collection of classroom practices that view the personal experiences of diverse student populations as valuable resources for instruction. It offers teachers various responses to the challenges posed by students' cultural, linguistic, and social group affiliations. The book contains essays arranged into three interwoven…

This report describes an approach to third-year college-level French literature instruction that used a more informal approach to student writing than that traditionally used in such a course. The approach evolved from a comparison of students' formal writing skills with the skills defined in the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign…

Children's writings seem to elicit a somewhat narrow range of adult responses. More often than not, the adult tendency is to read children's fictional writings as autobiographical. The adult critic can, that is, think of the child author as a collection of biographical facts, a series of life experiences with an end point marked by the production…

In the writing classroom, students and instructors alike must not only theorize experience but must also experience theory. This is no easy task, for despite cultural studies' emphasis on the "subjective side of social relations," contemporary theory is heavily directed toward signifying practices, and, as Lawrence Grossberg argues,…

A university reading educator exchanged jobs with an elementary school teacher for a full year of teaching and research in a second-grade classroom. The educator's perspective on teaching and learning literacy was based on the 3-part principle that immersion in a rich literate environment, explicit teacher instruction in literacy skills and…

A professional development model for teachers of literature (K-13) was conceived in the context of the current disjunctions between literary theory and pedagogical practices in the teaching of literature on the one hand, and a different set of disjunctions between teaching practices in literature and in composition on the other. Recent…

This study sought to determine the effect of four different structured group decision-making techniques in an undergraduate business communication course on the quality of a written assignment and on student reaction to the decision-making technique. The effects of gender, age, and academic intellectual ability were also investigated. The four…

Using content to motivate students in grades 4-8 to acquire reading and writing skills, this book presents 13 mini-lessons on using literature to teach skills and strategies in reading, writing, and grammar. Each lesson covers at least 2, if not all 3 of these areas, and each lesson can easily take several days to cover. Each lesson presents the…

The approach of parody writing dates back to ancient Greece. Unlike traditional parody that usually develops satire of an author's work, a form of primary parody writing can be used in the classroom to help children develop connections with text as they express their own ideas. Parody writing is useful with children in grade 3 and has potential…