Eckerd College in Florida has instituted portfolio assessment in writing classes, a method which invites students to engage in learning on a variety of levels. Portfolios encourage students to consider the responses of various readers in their revision processes, claim ownership of their writing, review the papers they have written in college,…

Effective writing is nearly impossible without engagement with the material. The informal journal may be the only place in the composition class which clearly respects and encourages students' individuality, and which cannot be accused of trying to force them into an academic straitjacket of a sometimes loose, sometimes tight, fit. At the same…

In their recent article, "Materiality and Genre in the Study of Discourse Communities," Devitt, Bawarshi, and Reiff maintain that genre analysis can enable outsiders to a discourse community "to connect what community members know and do with what they say and how they say it--their language practices" (542). Genre analysis,…

In this essay, the author suggests that recent developments in English studies and popular culture create an opportune moment for writing teachers to welcome such literature in composition curricula. The author describes how studying stories by John Edgar Wideman enabled first-year composition students to engage political and interpersonal issues…

There are several variables at work in any piece of writing and some combinations of these variables can cause serious problems for some students. The first area where two of these variables occur is in the notion of what a college education is. The subject matter to be learned is one variable in what education means, and the second variable is…

Advertising educators have a responsibility to make students aware of the importance of the mature market (older people) and to teach them methods to reach this group. An assignment in a copywriting class asked students to write and design ads to promote blue jeans to adults over 50. The assignment accomplished three things: (1) helped students…

An instructor teaching a summer semester of freshman composition collected data for a descriptive study from five students in the class. Of the five students, one was Caucasian, and the other four were Hispanic; all had children. A central value of the study was its potential for demonstrating the benefits of teaching composition through…

An instructor of an adolescent literature course wanted to give the students an opportunity to study some novels not specifically written for an adolescent audience. Examples of such novels were: Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird," J.D. Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye," and Jamaica Kincaid's "Annie John." Including…

When students study the discipline of statistics, a domain that can be remote and abstract for them, it is critical that they understand what the numbers mean and how those numbers help people arrive at decisions. This paper presents different approaches that help students learn how researchers actually work with statistics and shows how students…

Designed for a broad audience in education, this book offers a realistic look at the wide range of teaching contexts and how writing teachers adapt their pedagogy to their particular circumstances. Specific topics highlighted by individual essays include: basic writing, service learning, online writing, revision, research writing, proofreading and…

Noting that the process of making and supporting generalizations and argumentation are two thinking strategies that cut across almost every subject area, this paper presents several class activities designed to improve students' ability to make and support generalizations and produce arguments in a written (or oral) composition. The first activity…

Not only inspiring teachers to help students become environmentally literate, this book also provides the tools to make it happen in the literature classroom. Beginning with readings and exercises about perception, it explores a wealth of nature writing activities, the history of people's relationship with nature from mythological times to the…

Understanding collaborative writing as a form of networking is useful in that it highlights the fact that composition students do not have the same type of networks or networking skills. Composition assignments should take into account the digital divide and should foster networking across social class divisions because invention is a social act.…

This lesson supports third- through fifth-grade students' exploration of multiple online sources to gather information about the life of a well-known explorer, Christopher Columbus. During the two 50- to 60-minute sessions, students will: use prewriting (a K-W-L chart) to prepare for research; use prior knowledge to extend the depth of inquiry;…

This paper discusses a first-year, second-semester composition course that develops thinking, reading, and writing skills both on an individual and on a group level; it is designed to enhance research and writing skills developed in the first-semester course. With this and the departmental course requirements in mind, according to the paper, the…