Elementary educators can teach middle and upper level students to be book critics beginning with picture books, thus encouraging poor and reluctant readers and providing all students with practice in reading, writing, and critical thinking. The article provides suggestions for objectives of student critiques, e.g., bulletin board displays for the…

Great Britain's National Curriculum places insufficient emphasis on handwriting instruction, and its suggestion to begin joined-up writing in Level 3 is inappropriate. A historical perspective on variations in handwriting style leads to a recommendation for a simple joined style, which would be based on the skeletal italic and taught by example.…

Interviews with three kindergarten teachers examined the effect of an in-service program which introduced them to findings from emergent literacy research with a developmental perspective. Although subjects used teacher-led instructional methods, they considered active child-centered kindergartens preferable. They enumerated external constraints…

Discusses one approach found to be successful for teachers with little formal English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) training and few ESL text materials to help their primary-aged ESL students to develop wide and varied uses of English. A discussion focuses on the use of wordless books in oral language and literacy development. (11 references) (GLR)

Described are student/consultant reports, turned in as homework, that reflected their abilities to distinguish useful from irrelevant information, solve the underlying calculus extremum problem, and reconcile the individual mathematical solutions with the ethical considerations surrounding the moral dilemma of the hypothetical consulting client.…

This article reviews recent projects using text structures and the writing process as frameworks to guide the composition dialogue. Learning-disabled students' attitudes toward writing as a required skill rather than a means of expression are confronted in the emphasis on dialogue. Several blank forms for organizing prewriting thoughts are…

Describes a study comparing the writing processes and written work of 33 female and male freshman. Students were given a Writing Anxiety Scale, asked to write two essays, and then interviewed. Analyzes length of time spent composing, number of words, use of personal pronouns, topic preference, writing anxiety, and writing experiences. (PAA)

Describes a study conducted to determine whether the relationships between reading and writing can serve as the basis of a functional pedagogy to improve the reading comprehension of academically underprepared college students. The study also examined the effects of integrated reading and writing instruction on students' skills and attitudes. (PAA)

The progress of a Chicano prison inmate in a tutorial literacy course demonstrates ways in which writing can negotiate and reorganize race, class, gender, and power identities for both tutor and student, and legitimize the voice, native language, and discourse stance of the student. (SLD)

After outlining theoretical issues involved in the social construction of literacy, reports on a study of 16 third and fourth graders and their teacher. Found that children's active engagement with peers that focused on written texts was more important for certain aspects of literacy development than access to an expert, such as a teacher. (MDM)

Presents a longitudinal study of six basic reading and writing students at the University of Florida that traces student progress. Demonstrates that several students experienced progress over a more than three-year span, although improvement was neither linear nor extensive. Identifies growth of metacognitive awareness among students. (HB)

This study examined influences on writing development among low-income, African-American elementary students. Questionnaires, test scores, and written answers from a longitudinal study provided study data. On all questionnaires, what consistently correlated with writing ability were effort, attitude, teacher and student expectations, maturity,…

Finds that Georgia State University College of Business Administration faculty perceived that students were able to design and present their documents well, but felt students were less able to select and organize material, present a plan of action, and express their message clearly. Notes that faculty expressed frustration with lack of time to…

A study investigated effectiveness of use of World Wide Web texts in a college English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) writing class, finding that the reading comprehension and writing skills of 15 students using the Web-based materials improved more than those of students not using the materials. Ethnographic observation also focused on four…

Describes a follow-up study of a University of Wyoming faculty development workshop on writing across the curriculum to assess its impact on teaching roles. Compares gatekeepers (e.g., teachers control classroom discourse and enforce the discipline's conventions) and border crossers (e.g., teachers invite students to direct discourse, and create…