This study is the third in a series of reports of the Reading-to-Write Project, a collaborative study of students' cognitive processes at one critical point of entry into academic performance. This part of the study examines the problem that teachers have in judging whether textual signals that students use to indicate a persuasive analysis of…

A study focused on the effects of the Writing to Read program piloted at kindergarten and first grade levels in Community Consolidated School District 65. The report included measures of students' writing, performance on district-made and standardized reading tests, and a follow-up on second graders. Statistical techniques of group comparison and…

A study examined the effect of sustained silent reading and writing on the reading achievement, writing, and reading attitude of students reading two or more years below grade level. Subjects, 97 seventh graders and 104 eighth graders enrolled in a semi-rural, predominantly black, lower socioeconomic status, Southeastern school district, were…

Distinguishing between teaching writing and teaching word processing, this book is intended as a guide for teachers who wish to teach writing with microcomputers. The 13 chapters and authors are as follows: (1) "Integrating Composing and Computing," Elizabeth Sommers; (2) "A Writing Teacher's Guide to Computerese," James…

In teaching standard English to non-native students or students with different dialects, teachers must gain the students' trust by demonstrating an egalitarian attitude toward all dialects, and by explaining that the acquisition of a new dialect does not require rejection of the old one. Also, in order to teach written English effectively to…

Intended to facilitate a broader emphasis on creative writing in American high school English classes, this manual offers a number of writing laboratory exercises. The exercises are divided into five categories: (1) library skills, including reference book know how, and using the parts of books; (2) critical reading skills, including…

As part of a one-year trial project, in fall 1981, Oakton College students who scored below 35 on the Educational Testing Service Test of Written Expression were not permitted to enroll in C101 (an introductory communications course) until they had successfully completed a developmental communications course or had retaken and passed the exam. To…

Error pattern analysis is a teaching technique that emphasizes identifying, classifying, and keeping a frequency count on only those errors actually occurring in students' writing. Application of error pattern analysis in a workshop format requires three steps: preparing an error pattern analysis, teaching from this analysis, and integrating it…

Mounting concern for student achievement in writing has refocused attention on the features of writing assessment necessary to represent a student's skill fairly, usefully and economically. If writing tests are to fulfill their intended function, the writing assignments and evaluative criteria of large scale tests and instruction must interrelate.…

As an initial review of National Assessment of Educational Progress data designed to determine whether the achievement of American youth is improving, a limited examination of changes in levels of achievement during the 1970s is presented. Benchmark assessments established in 1974-75 indicates a large degree of consistency from one learning area…

Peer evaluation was implemented in a college composition seminar to explore its effectiveness. The class of 13 students met once a week, workshop style, for 4 hours. Students wrote short papers (three to five typed pages) every week in an assigned mode (critical analysis, social commentary, familiar essay) but on topics of their own choosing. For…

Drawn from a California conference that brought together writing instructors and researchers, the papers in this compilation address problems in writing, policies affecting both writing instruction and assessment, and possibilities for improving both areas. Papers in the first section of the book represent positions of eight separate entities: (1)…

The effects of aggregation on the reliability of measures of academic performance were explored in two studies. In the first study, 30 elementary-age children were tested four times on the same forms of the Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests and the Ginn 720 Reading Passage measures. Group stability coefficients, within-subject reliability…

Intended for adult education English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) teachers and administrators, this guide provides information for identifying appropriate testing instruments and integrating them into an overall testing and assessment program. Chapter 1 focuses on testing procedures and covers organization of the testing program, test selection,…

To learn more about the kind of learning that occurs when students read and receive response to their writing, a study was designed to develop an analytical system by which to describe the language of writing groups. Nine writing groups were examined, two from grade 5, four from grade 8, and three from grades 10 through 12. The data collected…