Content-area literacy involves the use of research-based learning strategies that help students effectively and efficiently gain content knowledge. Its use is fundamental to all content areas, not just to those that rely heavily on printed materials. One of the major goals of content-area instruction is to produce critical thinkers and problem…

In this article theoretical frameworks of genre theory, reading strategies and situated learning are used to show the complexity of the reading task for pupils in the English medium upper primary school in Singapore. An analysis of text genres from school textbooks of English, maths and science at primary three, shows how reading appropriately in…

How do you teach the humanities to working class students living in the shadow of a BP oil refinery? Calumet College uses freshman learning communities that link humanities, social justice, and English composition classes to provide a foundation for college success to predominantly first-generation students who are often underprepared for…

TESOL theory is intended to inform teacher practice, but studying what teachers actually do in a given teaching context can sometimes lead to better theory. This report illustrates an area in which practice informed theory in the context of 1-on-1 writing conferences for prematriculated ESL writers. This report describes the creation and…

Learning outcomes for introductory college-level science classes include content knowledge and a range of critical thinking and analysis skills. In this context, rich writing assignments that engage students in researching content, constructing arguments, and critiquing other students' work are highly desirable but unwieldy due to large…

The purpose of this study was to identify and describe teaching actions--embedded in the "Science Writing Heuristic" approach, a systematic teaching approach that integrates literacy instruction and argument-based inquiry learning of science--supportive of the cross-disciplinary literacy expectations necessary to compete in the 21st…

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) play a major role in creating a new and improved model of teaching and learning. A great number of studies have been conducted to examine the advantages of integrating ICT in language education in general and English as a Second Language (ESL) teaching and learning in particular. However, there is…

The Writing Pal (W-Pal) is a novel intelligent tutoring system (ITS) that offers writing strategy instruction, game-based practice, essay writing practice, and formative feedback to developing writers. Compared to more tractable and constrained learning domains for ITS, writing is an ill-defined domain because the features of effective writing are…

This article describes an adolescent's development of multiliterate and multilingual writing practices and identities. It further explores how a literacy teacher enacted a writing pedagogy of multiliteracies that assisted the youth in building writing practices and identities. Data include interviews of the young woman and her teacher, classroom…

In a randomized controlled trial, 205 students were followed from grades 1 to 3 with a focus on changes in their writing trajectories following an evidence-based intervention during the spring of second grade. Students were identified as being at-risk (n=138), and then randomized into treatment (n=68) versus business-as-usual conditions (n=70). A…

This study investigated the use of a wiki for collaborative writing among primary levels five (P5) and six (P6) students (n = 119) in a Chinese primary school in Hong Kong where English is taught as a second language (L2). Three classes of students and their English subject teachers participated in a three-month English language writing programme…

In a randomized controlled trial, 205 students were followed from grades 1 to 3 with a focus on changes in their writing trajectories following an evidence-based intervention during the spring of second grade. Students were identified as being at-risk (n = 138), and then randomized into treatment (n = 68) versus business-as-usual conditions (n =…

How developed, integrated and focused a nation has been is partly a function of her level of literacy. Hence, every nation desires full literacy that involves the two skills of reading and writing. Both skills are as elusive as they are rewarding, especially if they have to be acquired from a Second position, such as occupied by English in…

Though the concept of noticing has been extensively addressed in the SLA literature, few studies suggest promoting noticing through collaborative feedback tasks (CFTs) in an EFL college writing classroom. To fill this gap, this paper attempts to provide a framework for promoting noticing through CFTs using three sequenced and interrelated CFTs:…

This article presents the author's response to Rafael Heller's critique of her commentary on foregrounding the disciplines in secondary school literacy teaching and learning. Heller challenges the idea of approaching secondary literacy instruction from a disciplinary perspective by arguing that rather than teach young people the literate practices…