This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 36 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) distancing in young children's stories; (2) the effects of verbal and visual elaborations on the learning of abstract concepts; (3) the effects of underlined…

This manual provides guidelines for implementing the instructional program in English/writing prescribed for the Basic Skills Project of the Phoenix, Arizona, Union High School District. The project supplements instructional efforts for students whose basic skills in reading, English/writing, and mathematics are in greatest need of improvement.…

A study was conducted to (1) examine the relation of syntactic complexity to mode of discourse in the writing of eighth and twelfth grade students; (2) determine to what extent variations observed were related to grade level, socioeconomic status, and race; and (3) determine to what extent the syntactic complexity achieved on a rewriting task…

One of a series of pre-apprenticeship training modules, this self-paced student training module deals with writing resumes. Included in the module are the following: cover sheet listing module title, goals, and performance indicators; introduction; study guide/check list with directions for module completion; information sheet discussing the…

The Pennsylvania Comprehensive Reading/Communication Arts Plan (PCRP) is a language arts curriculum providing four critical experiences that all students need in order to become competent in reading, writing, listening, and speaking: responding to literature, sustained silent reading, oral and written composing, and investigating and mastering…

A study investigated what basic writers think they are doing when they write and whether those perceptions are related to their writing achievement. A total of 134 students, high school seniors in a program of extra academic help and college freshmen in a compensatory composition course, completed a questionnaire that elicited data about their…

The New Brunswick Writing Assessment Program implemented in grades five, eight, and eleven in New Brunswick (Canada) public schools in 1978 is described in this report, which includes the specific assignments for each grade, a discussion of the general holistic scoring approach used, and characteristics of the responses at each grade, including…

An approach to promote student editing of their own compositions, to be used in intermediate English as a second language classes, is discussed. Although editing or monitoring may not improve the communicative accuracy of a written message, it may give the message a more native-like quality. Monitoring works best on morphemes which are acquired…

A year-long study of the writing growth of eight seventh grade children was conducted to determine whether knowledge of reading rhetoric could be directly applied to personal writing behavior. It was assumed that active comprehension of a distinctive literary model would provide awareness of the structure of narrative prose and improve the…

The aim of the South Carolina Basic Skills Assessment Program was to meet legislative requirements, to improve instruction and to integrate instructional sensitivity into the state's educational programs for grades K-12 in the basic skill areas of reading, writing and mathematics. In their task of identifying, compiling and revising educational…

The materials in this manual include the activities and creative writing samples from a summer inservice writing skills workshop conducted for 32 teachers from seven school districts. The outlined writing activities cover a variety of topics that involve describing real and imaginary objects, naming objects in a newly created world, writing poetry…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 21 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: the effectiveness of media presentations in teaching research skills; language as a means of increasing perception; language arts curriculum planning and execution…

Major findings of the 1974-1977 Massachusetts statewide educational assessment are summarized and some readily available and useful instructional resources are identified. The findings are designed to assist teachers and administrators in discussion. Each section begins with a commentary and is followed by a review of findings, a discussion of…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 20 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: the effect of vocabulary instruction on the comprehension of poor readers; contextual methods of teaching sight words to elementary remedial readers; the effects…

Students nearing high school graduation need more than the skills and information given them in the past 12 years; they also need to know "how" to learn. The Senior Seminar, which is a program offering a semester of interdisciplinary experiential learning, teaches students to become independent, self-directed learners by first presenting…