A curriculum guide for the language arts program, grades kindergarten through 6, of the Darien, Connecticut, Public Schools is provided. The guide contains the following sections, which are color coded to indicate whether they are appropriate for Grades kindergarten through 6, kindergarten through 3, or grades 4 through 6: (1) The Student Centered…

The work itself should help a person who is going to teach reading and writing. Practical suggestions are offered in the final two chapters, while the opening three give intellectual perspectives. A theme binds the work of letting the consciousness of writing as a visual system be increased and of breaking the spell by which letter phonetics can…

This is the third National Assessment report on the writing of children aged 9, 13, and 17, and young adults. The three exercises used in the writing assessment were: Age 9: The Forest Fire Exercise; Age 13: The Famous Person Exercise; and Age 17: The Famous Person Exercise. An exercise for young adults (Adults: The Commissioner Stroud Letter)…

A set of curriculum papers written mainly by teachers who attended workshops in continuing education is presented. This set contains articles looking toward a freer conception of school writing than the one generally held, and some exemplary assignments. The intent of these papers is to provoke significant curriculum change by changing teacher…

This first grade workbook is designed for children in bilingual Inupiat-English programs in the Alaskan villages of Ambler, Kiana, Kobuk, Noorvik, Selawik, and Shungnak. Each page has a particular letter, a black-and-white drawing which represents a word which contains this letter, and lines the child is to use for writing the letter. (CFM)

This glossary gives brief, non-technical explanations of the following kinds of terms: (1) names of all important languages now spoken in the Middle East, or known to have been spoken in the area; (2) names of language families represented in the area; (3) descriptive terms used with reference to the writing systems of the area; (4) names of…

Three high school students present findings of their survey of professional writers' training, influences, and writing processes conducted to judge whether secondary school writing programs adequately prepare high schoolers for writing in the future. Comments from writers emphasized prewriting, inspiration, reader feedback, and sequential drafts.…

Outlines and illustrates an approach to the teaching of research English on a group basis which derives from four bodies of literature: (1) the sociology of science, (2) citation analysis, (3) technical writing, and (4) English for academic purposes. This approach gives the ESL instructor insight into the students' research writing processes and…

Reviews the major types of computer aids to invention to reveal the paper-based design paradigm that characterizes them. Discusses implications of this "old paradigm" and suggests directions for developing new, uniquely electronic paradigms for future aids. (AEW)

Discusses a study exploring the effect of the social context of two contrasting types of discussion--question and answer, and response centered--on students' interpretation of a literary work. Concludes that certain characteristics of the question and answer discussion may have inhibited students' interpretive responses. (JC)

The origins, organization, and methods of a Columbia University course offering computer-based instruction in French composition are outlined, and the progress of four individual students is described. (MSE)

The paper discusses: features of word processors and their impact on the writing process and the social context for writing; research on word processors in schools and the potential instructional role of extensions to word processors, such as spelling and style checkers, synthesized speech output, computer networks, and interactive prompting…

A flexible writing curriculum meets varied student levels and goals by basing courses on students' own written work. Activities in this type of curriculum include: prewriting activities, first drafts, peer critiques, instructor feedback, worksheet handouts, and second drafts. (Author/CB)

Describes program operation, applications, and teacher and student opinions of DELPHI, a computer program used in a wide variety of subjects which allows students and instructors to enter questions anonymously for others to answer. These question-answer pairs are then presented to other students or the instructor for comment or evaluation. (MBR)

Most research conducted on the amount of time English language learners (ELLs) require for the acquisition of academic English suggests that 4-10 years are required to be near or on par with fully proficient English (FEP) peers. In this study, data from three administrations (1999, 2000, and 2001) of the FCAT writing test of the Florida Writing…