Intended for teachers in Tasmania, this booklet discusses making sense of language, the nature of written language, language and context, and organizing knowledge of the world. Chapter 1, Understanding Reading, contains a general discussion of the reading process as well as sections on the beginning and continuing reader, planning a reading…

Intended to evaluate the effectiveness of the "Success in Reading and Writing Program" of the District of Columbia Public Schools, this report was also designed to help teachers make the best use of the program and to provide administrators with information upon which to base decisions concerning its continuation. The introduction…

The product of a course at the University of Pittsburgh, this book offers educators the opportunity to see how the acts of reading, writing, and thinking that characterize work in academia appear to those students who lack adequate preparation for such work--namely, basic writers. The introduction to the book presents an overview of the course and…

Prepared by classroom teachers, the papers in this collection combine practical knowledge with recent findings from writing research. Among the topics discussed in the 25 papers are (1) student teacher conferences, (2) using poetry to develop writing fluency, (3) writing as a learning process, (4) oral and written discourse, (5) creative dramatics…

Intended as a guide for elementary school teachers who want to use the computer as a writing tool in their classrooms, this booklet offers an outline of practical information and techniques for introducing young children to computers in kindergarten through grade 6. The first chapter explains the process approach to writing and advocates computer…

Based on college writing center models, a number of high schools are deciding to establish writing centers, some of them in anticipation of competency tests in composition. Staffing can be the single most significant and expensive factor for secondary schools wanting to provide writing centers. Among the options for dealing with the staffing…

It is safe to assume that by the end of the decade the videocassette recorder (VCR) will be the only piece of educational technology available to virtually all students both in and out of school. Given that working out the pedagogical consequences of VCR technology will be the most important media-related task of the next few years, the following…

Computer use in the English classroom has the potential to help students enjoy and integrate their learning of writing and reading of literature in new ways. This new relationship between the student and machine-readable text can be thought of in terms of Alvin Toffler's theory of the "prosumer," a person who uses Information Age…

A study examined the effects of using heuristics, a problem-solving approach, to respond to drafts written by six university students of advanced composition in English as a second language (ESL). The students had varied language backgrounds. The teacher responded to first drafts of each of three writing assignments by writing heuristic questions…

Collaborative learning (the construction of knowledge through interaction of pairs or small groups of students) is an effective tool for helping students bridge the gap between speaking and writing. To accomplish this type of learning, students must practice talking and writing in a small group structure. Concrete teaching experience has shown…

Reported are the findings of a legislatively mandated study on reducing certain class sizes of grades kindergarten through three to an optimum pupil-teacher ratio for Minnesota's schools. This report, after defining terms, briefly surveys variables affected by class size, such as teaching processes and classroom climate. Research is subsequently…

Based on studies conducted by teachers and graduate students at Northeastern University, this book offers a comprehensive overview of the kinds of research being conducted by writing teachers, as well as extensive information on how this research has affected their professional lives. The chapters are divided into five parts dealing with the…

Designed for elementary school teachers, this publication treats various aspects of publishing young student-authors' writing. Activities are as follows: (1) proofreading (children should proofread first by themselves); (2) pagination (let children decide how to break up the text); (3) placement of text (on alternate pages, for example, or perhaps…

In the past 5 years, the University of Hawaii (UH) English Department has undergone significant changes in curriculum, staff, and students. Freshman English was formerly taught by lecturers, but is now the shared responsibility of all professors on the English faculty. The maximum class enrollment has been decreased from 25 students to 20.…

Research indicates that writing can be an important vehicle for integrating all the learning that occurs in a foreign language. However, a number of factors have conspired to displace foreign language writing as a critical skill: the push for oral proficiency, departmental fragmentation, larger class sizes, and heavier faculty loads. Second…