By adopting a child-centered approach, this book provides a knowledge base and ideas for prospective language arts or combined language arts and reading teachers to engage children in actively thinking and communicating in the classroom. New in the fifth edition of this book are: thematic units that provide models for constructing lessons using…

Designed to supplement an established language arts and social studies program, this books deals with the Aztecs, Incas, and Mayas of Latin America. All of the "Story Starter" books are intended to give a variety of vocabulary and story ideas to help with the writing process. Each of the books is divided into four main sections: (1) an…

A study examined the effectiveness of a staff development program in the Yale (Michigan) public schools, intended to provide professional development to all elementary and secondary language arts teachers about the instruction of writing process and the evaluation of student work. Evaluation of the professional development model included teacher…

This booklet (one of a series of 10 booklets in a reading project to benefit Kosair Children's Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky) contains five stories especially written for kindergarten children by educators. The stories are about: the importance of using a seatbelt; a child's first experience of a hospital; a visit to an emergency room; a…

This booklet (one of a series of 10 booklets in a reading project to benefit Kosair Children's Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky) contains nine stories especially written for first graders by educators. The stories are about: illness and accidents; accident prevention; children's reactions to hospital stays; the first day of school; a death in the…

This booklet (one of a series of 10 booklets in a reading project to benefit Kosair Children's Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky) contains 10 stories especially written for second graders by educators. The stories are about: illness and accidents; accident prevention; children's reactions to hospital stays; the death of a pet; a child's view of…

This booklet (one of a series of 10 booklets in a reading project to benefit Kosair Children's Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky) contains 10 stories especially written for third graders by educators. The stories are about: various kinds of disabilities; accidents and accident prevention; childhood illnesses; children's reactions to hospital stays;…

An ethnographic study examined ways in which the writing behaviors of adult literacy students in a classroom setting were either similar to or different from current theories of language acquisition. Three students were selected from an adult literacy class at the Fordham Library Center in the Bronx. The research plan had a three-pronged approach:…

There are compelling reasons to use talk in the writing classroom to improve both expressive and expository writing. First, speaking is natural, and students come to the writing classroom linguistically well-developed and confident. Second, talking encourages exploration of words by slowing down the thought process without completely stopping it.…

Designed to alleviate the confusion caused by the existence of a multiplicity of approaches to writing research, the four parts of this book present explicit discussions of research principles and methods used by researchers actively working within a variety of disciplines. The two chapters in Part 1 describe very broad views of the entire…

Given critical theory's current focus on the interaction between writers and readers over the surface of a text, it seems appropriate to examine the semantic component concerned with how writers anticipate that interaction--the interpersonal component. The relevance of the interpersonal component is apparent in traditional instruction on point of…

The six evaluation instruments recommended by the Committee on Teaching and Its Evaluation of the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) were modified to evaluate a large freshman writing program taught by inexperienced instructors. As course goals were clearly stated in the instructor's guide and repeated in orientation and…

Forty-eight professors of English or education at state universities throughout the United States were surveyed to discover what concepts state institutions were emphasizing in English writing. The survey asked 10 preliminary questions about what writing courses were offered or required for prospective undergraduate English teachers and 13…

Prepared as part of a series applying recent research in oral and written communication instruction to classroom practice, this booklet discusses three visual models of teaching written composition. The first section of the booklet discusses the content area model, which begins with an abstraction presented to students (definitions of parts of…

To determine students' thought processes as they are writing, over 100 secondary school English students periodically were asked a set of questions immediately after an in-class writing activity, when they were most in touch with their own experiences. Questions were: (1) What things happen to you when you write? (2) What things concerning writing…