Intended for students taking the Grade 12 Diploma Examination in English 30 in Alberta, Canada, this test contains (1) general instructions, (2) two minor assignments consisting of literature readings to which the student must write a personal response, and (3) a major assignment requiring students to show how the authors they studied in senior…

This paper presents an instructional model for thinking skills and discusses implementing the model. Based on a unitary theory of human cognition and some basic assumptions about the conditions for successfully intervening in public education, the model can be implemented at any grade level within any instructional framework. Currently used models…

Text linguistics can make significant theoretical and practical contributions for writing teachers. Borrowing from classical rhetoric and cognitive psychology, text linguists investigate defining text, creating text grammars, and identifying communicative aspects of text. To show how these investigations are useful for writing teachers, this…

Intended for students taking the Grade 12 Diploma Examination in English 30 in Alberta, Canada, this test contains (1) general instructions, (2) two minor assignments consisting of literature readings about which the student must write a personal response, and (3) a major assignment requiring students to show how the authors they studied in senior…

Intended for students taking the Grade 12 Diploma Examinations in English 33 in Alberta, Canada, this test on writing contains general instructions and three sections: (1) a personal response to an aspect of literature, (2) functional writing requiring a written response within a given situation or context, and (3) a response to visual…

Developed to increase student ability to communicate effectively in a growing range of situations, this kindergarten through grade eight writing and speaking program is based on clusters of instructional and performance objectives for each grade level. The guide begins with a discussion of the goals of education, a point of view about language…

Renewing some previous considerations on the "manufactured" split between literature and composition instruction that is currently dividing many professionals in higher education today, this paper discusses the economic and political reasons for the initial separation of composition and literature in the classroom. The paper argues that…

To improve the teaching of writing in public schools, pre-service teachers should be trained in the theories and practice of composition and rhetoric through new courses in rhetoric, regardless of the teacher's subject area. Although the academic discipline of composition studies is now established, many public school teachers are not familiar…

A "cultural and informational exchange" between two Maryland middle schools allowed two groups of gifted students to accomplish several learning objectives while discovering new regions of their state and nurturing new acquaintances. Computers were central to the program--all information was created using word processing programs, and…

Intended for students taking the Grade 12 Diploma Examination in English 30 in Alberta, Canada, this test contains (1) general instructions; (2) a minor assignment consisting of a literature reading to which the students must write a personal response; and (3) a major assignment requiring students to show how the authors they studied in senior…

This curriculum guide provides teachers and ABC's: Accountability, Basics, Citizenship. Basic Education (ABE)/General Educational Development (GED) students. Chapter 1 provides guidance/evaluation procedures to help the teacher maintain and document the entrance level and progress of the students. Chapter 2 focuses on specialized guidance…

To explore student facility with argumentative writing, 40 persuasive essays of 5th, 7th, and 11th grade students were analyzed for their relative percentage of reporting (narrating), interpreting, generalizing, and speculative sentences. Fifth and seventh graders were found to use significantly more narrative and fewer generalizations than older…

This study was designed to add to the knowledge bases of teaching and professional development. It is a phenomenological study of the classroom teacher and a group of seven elementary school teachers who reflected upon, wrote about, and discussed their lives as classroom teachers over a one-year period. Teachers kept written diaries which…

The writing problems of most Spanish-English bilinguals do not stem from their bilingualism per se, but are similar to those that inhibit other basic writers. The most serious is unfamiliarity with written, academic English. Students can rarely overcome this on their own. Most need intensive remedial and developmental instruction to be adequately…

This report describes the North Carolina Annual Testing Programs writing task which was administered in 1985-86. Grade six students were tested on their ability to write a clarification composition; while grade 8 students were evaluated on their skills in writing a persuasive composition. The timed composition (50 minutes) was scored by two…