Evaluates the report of the Commission on Reading, "Becoming a Nation of Readers," which focuses on giving attention to classroom teaching, testing, and teacher education. It gives recommendations for changes in the way reading is taught and includes the list of 17 recommmendations from the report. (MD)

Describes how the College Board, under the auspices of the Equality Project, is collaborating with school and college educators to bring about school reform, with special attention given to the writing component of the curriculum. (HOD)

This article suggests several proven strategies to help students move beyond the knowledge-telling stage of writing to the knowledge-transforming approach, which involves not only putting one's knowledge into words but the reflection upon, revision, and improvement of that knowledge. Eleven references are listed. (DCS)

Describes how a self-arranged instructor internship program oriented a technical writing teacher to the technical communication profession and made clear some of the needed changes in instructional practices. (EL)

Reviews over 50 textbooks grouped into three categories: (1) workbooks; (2) sentence style books, most of which use sentence combining as the fundamental type of exercise; and (3) copy books, which are used by directly copying passages with signals for particular changes. (EL)

Describes the Success in Reading and Writing Program, designed to help students with attention deficit disorders by involving all four language processes. (FL)

Millions of middle and high school students lack the reading and writing skills they need to succeed in college, compete in the workforce, or even understand their daily newspaper. However, while Congress has demonstrated a real commitment to improve reading instruction in grades K-3, it has made relatively trivial investments (mainly through the…

Today, less than one-third of America's high school students read or write at grade level. Literacy skills are alarmingly low even among those students who plan to go to college. Clearly, vast numbers of middle and high school students need help with their reading and writing skills. The question is: Whose job should it be to teach them? Among…

This clear, reader-friendly book is carefully designed to help readers gain confidence and acquire competence in their academic writing abilities. It focuses on real people as they write and actively involves readers in the writing process. The authors' innovative approach encourages reflection on how professional writing initiatives connect to…

Besides a change in the expectations of parents, other shifts are occurring in society that impact the youngest children (Bowman, Donovan, & Burns, 2000): (1) More women are in the workforce than ever before, which means more children are in child care or preschool; (2) There is increasing evidence of, and conviction from educators, that preschool…

This new edition updates and expands the previous volume and continues to reflect the concepts and the reasons behind learning and behavior problems of low achieving and disadvantaged students. Through the chapters, the author describes instructional levels and independent levels, emphasizing that success is produced by finding the place on the…

This report presents a meta-analysis of research on teaching expressive writing to students with learning disabilities. Virtually all the interventions analyzed were multifaceted and involved students writing everyday as part of the curriculum. The meta-analysis identified several themes critical to effective writing instruction: (1) adherence to…

In 2002, the Michigan State Board of Education asked the Department of Education to develop grade-by-grade "content expectations" in reading/English language arts and mathematics to provide guidance to local educators and parents and serve as the basis for annual assessments required by the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of…

Writing in the workplace is among the understudied business topics in the field of HRD. Yet, the impacts of writing in today's workplace are significant, and organizations making it a priority benefit from it. Furthermore, writing is related to the issue of workplace literacy which is the umbrella term for basic communication skills. This…

This paper describes a program implemented to improve student writing skills. Research data included teachers' observations and evaluations, student surveys, and student writing samples. Subjects were students in grades 1, 3, and 4 in 5 Illinois schools showing a need for writing improvement. Objectives were to increase writing abilities with…