A study examined an experimental curriculum developed to enhance students' literacy and social studies skills. Videodisc and text materials (the films "Young Sherlock Holmes" and "Oliver" and stories by Charles Dickens and Conan Doyle) were used to create a "macrocontext" for learning. The curriculum evaluation…

The Pima County Adult Education project undertook a demonstration project to provide English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) instruction to students with little or few reading skills. The project's objectives were to: enroll at least 20 students; provide 3 hours of literacy instruction weekly for at least 12 weeks in each of 2 sessions; document…

Developed as part of the Arkansas Minimum Performance Testing Program (MPT), these item specifications relate to the eighth grade language arts minimum performance test. There is one item specification for each instructional objective included in the MPT. Item specifications are intended to provide an overview of the general content and format of…

During winter semester 1989, Monroe County Community College (MCCC) developed a Writing Fellows program and introduced a Writing Center into the Learning Assistance Lab (LAL). Both these iniatives were part of the school's writing-across-the-curriculum (WAC) efforts which had been launched in fall 1987. Writing Fellows are specially-trained peer…

A study demonstrated the viability of an instructional paradigm that identifies adult mediation within the zone of proximal development to be a significant factor in young children's learning. Six teachers participated during the first year and eight teachers during the second year. Complete data were collected for 200 kindergarten children.…

A discussion of the use of dialogue journals in second language instruction integrates research and personal teaching experience in an analysis of the technique's benefits and challenges. The first chapter reviews what dialogue journals are and how they differ from other teaching strategies. Their use in different adult education contexts are also…

"Math Notebook" is published five times a year as a supplement to the "NCTM News Bulletin." This document consists of the five issues published during 1990. Each issue is devoted to a single math topic. The five topics represented here are: (1) "Concept of Number"; (2) "Basic Skills: Development of Number Concepts" (a continuation of "Concept of…

A study investigated the relative effects of using computers and writing by hand on secondary students' quality or quantity of writing, and on their attitudes toward writing. Subjects were 40 eighth-grade students in an Anglo-Chinese school in Hong Kong, with some experience in writing brief compositions. The word processing program used was…

A practicum was designed to improve and expand the writing skills of 13 fifth-grade students placed in an upper elementary school Alternative Education program. The major goal was to provide the students with the means to improve their written output and grammar. Secondary goals were to help the children to think logically about the writing tasks…

This booklet, based on the classroom work and experiences of 12 teachers in Australia, analyzes text retelling as a language developing process and illustrates effective procedures and activities successfully used in the classroom. The booklet contains eight sections: (1) What is Retelling?; (2) Retelling and Language Learning; (3) Using Retelling…

Two issues of this journal on adult education contain articles on the following: administration, adult education, and democracy; native cultural diversity, cultural differences, and education; a profile of a popular educator; institutionalization of adult education; rural education in Mexico; projects in adult education; the necessity of and…

This book is intended for people who want to organize their own learning either individually or as a member of a community group rather than fit into a more predetermined and perhaps more formal educational experience. Section 1 focuses on learning to a purpose. Section 2 discusses getting going. In the next section are suggestions for finding…

In an effort to reduce student writing apprehension, an informal, in-class study was conducted in a lower-level college writing course at an Alabama university. The 16 students in this course took a Writing Apprehension Test (WAT--pretest) on the first day of class. Throughout the course, all writing was based on student experiences and came from…

Results of a campus-wide assessment of the writing skills of students at Ferris State College (Michigan) are presented. In fall 1985 and spring 1986, incoming freshmen produced writing samples in English classes. Upper-division students in the following programs also produced writing samples: allied health, arts and sciences, business, education,…

Thirteen classroom activities designed to provide active language practice for students of English as a second language are described. Some highlight a targeted grammatical structure, and others require that students work together to solve a problem. Each is designated by level of difficulty (beginning, intermediate, or advanced), skill focus…