This document contains samples and explanations from Colorado's state reading and writing comprehension test for Grade 7, hereby released to the public (parents, teachers, and any other interested parties). It presents one multiple-choice reading comprehension item based upon a poem and includes the correct answers. Next, it presents two short…

Examines ERIC materials on the nature of and supporting the use of invented spelling in elementary school writing. (HTH)

Examines the differences in quality ratings that 20 teachers in each of three high school curricular areas gave samples of written argument by college freshmen and investigates the relationship between the three groups of quality ratings and eight syntactic and mechanics-of-writing variables. (FL)

Research suggests that good writers differ from poor writers. Teachers who develop prewriting exercises, emphasize multiple draft assignments, help the student think about revision, and evaluate the product can help undergraduates write and think more clearly. (Author/AM)

Makes certain observations relating to the use of general-impression marking as a partial determinant of admission to tertiary educational institutions in Western Australia. (HOD)

Reports on an experiment during which English teachers collected pieces of writing that their students had prepared for assessment and gave them to other English teachers for grading. (HOD)

Outlines a technique for improving student writing across the disciplines through postwriting evaluation sessions. (FL)

Discusses the findings of a study of teachers' written comments and evaluations of student essays. Among the results of the study are the fact that most teachers' comments were not text specific. (HTH)

Examines how the relationship between teacher and student alters the connection between the writer's authority and the quality of the reader's attention. Discusses how teachers assess student writing from the perspective of an "ideal text," at the expense of discerning what the student is actually trying to say. (HTH)

Offers several strategies that can be used by social studies teachers to incorporate more writing into their classrooms. (FL)

Suggests activities for using newspapers in the composition classroom. Activities include using information from newspapers during the creative process, using journalistic style to illustrate composition techniques, and using the paper as a tool in learning how to evaluate writing. (HTH)

Discusses a basic news reporting class in which students were graded on how well they graded peer papers. (HOD)

Discusses two types of student writing problems: error characteristics (spelling, pronoun usage, subject-verb agreement, run-on sentences, and capitalization) and nonerror characteristics (density of ideas, variety of referents, and variety of expression). Suggests ways to diagnose and correct them. (HTH)

Discusses the growing interest in competency testing in writing at the college level, the growing dependence on minimal essays as the norm for "correct" composition, and the resulting decline in grace and style in college composition. (Author/HTH)

Illustrates a change in emphasis on grading for form and content which has occurred in English composition by giving examples from a study conducted in 1972 and 1978 in which seven instructors of English composition were given the same essay to grade six years apart. (MKM)