Beliefs about texts and textbooks is an active area of inquiry in social psychology but the results of these studies are largely unknown in the fields of English education and composition. For most students knowledge and beliefs function very similarly. What a student knows he or she inevitably believes; and what he or she believes means a…

This study adapted the Cognitive Strategy in Writing (CSIW) program, which had been effectively used with elementary students with learning disabilities (LD), to an older population of students. CSIW embodies three guiding principles: (1) effective writing is seen as a holistic enterprise involving the processes of planning, organizing, writing,…

Writing portfolios, which provide samples of a student's writing over a period of time, are an excellent vehicle for giving faculty a new resource for teaching students self assessment. Since the portfolios include concrete evidence of a variety of writing assignments, students also learn that writing is a developmental process. This development…

Contemporary findings of brain research and language function can be analyzed and related to the teaching of creative and critical thinking and active learning through writing. A great deal of work has been carried out concerning the integration of the cerebral hemispheres for heuristic procedures in writing invention. In the integrated brain, the…

This study examined the relative effects of the self-evaluation process on written composition skills development among learning-disabled junior high students. It specifically evaluated the use of a structured self-evaluation process on the quality of short compositions. Experimental subjects (N=38) were taught the use of a self-evaluation…

Often students have the option to choose topics to write about during creative writing sessions. Increasingly, however, state mandated tests do not give students options of writing topics. The state mandated test specifies the topic. "Three B's and a C" is an integrated creative writing/social studies program that teaches students…

This guide presents instructional practices recommended by participants at a June, 1990 forum of representatives of the higher education, school, and publishing communities which addressed issues in the teaching of writing to students with learning problems. Chapter 1 looks at composition instruction noting the status of writing in American…

As in urban schools, at-risk students in rural schools may be unmotivated, lack purpose for learning, have special learning problems, or come from dysfunctional families. In this paper, an experienced teacher in a small rural Oklahoma high school describes her efforts to demonstrate that at-risk students would improve in all language areas as a…

A study investigated the organizational processes accessed during the composing process by elementary student writers whose teachers had been instructed by the Project READ/Inquiring School Initiative at the University of Pittsburgh in helping children develop organizational structures. Subjects were 28 fourth-grade students in the experimental…

Wordless picture books are a gift to the student of English as a Second Language (ESL). A strong story line is delivered through illustrations which are thoughtfully prepared. These books free the ESL student to draw from personal experience and write the story at his own ability level from personal vocabulary. Self-expression and creative…

This report is one of a series from a project entitled "Case Studies in Evaluating the Benefits and Costs of Mediated Instruction and Distributed Learning," funded through a Field-Initiated Studies Educational Research Grant. The case study subject is the use of Daedalus courseware, an interactive program that allows all participants to…

A reading and writing instructor of a population of students who are largely "marginalized" (of African descent, female, and/or poor) sees the literature of Toni Morrison as a relevant and critical teaching tool. Additionally, the instructor believes it is important to look critically at Morrison's literature for several reasons: (1)…

This document consists of the two issues published during 1997 of the newsletter of the Japan Association for Language Teaching's national special interest group (N-SIG) on foreign language literacy. The major articles in these two issues are: "How To Develop Reading-To-Do Skills in Engineering Education" (Esko Johnson); "Key…

This document presents a curriculum (based on the author's own experiences listening to music) that aims to get children to become aware of themselves by having them write down their thoughts and feelings (their "contemplations") after listening to music or in response to famous quotations. The document discusses how the curriculum was…

The book offers practical information for classroom teachers and teacher educators on effectively incorporating computer technology in the classroom. The book focuses on the change associated with the growing presence in educational institutions of the new communication and information processing technologies, which is most significant for…