Discusses issues central to instructor's conceptualizations of curricula for English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) writing instruction, citing findings from interviews with skilled ESL instructors in countries where English is the dominant language. Focusing on curriculum options in the Adult Migrant English Program, shows how Australia has taken…

Accountability for student learning and support of evidence-based instructional approaches are critical responsibilities for teachers. Both are particularly significant with the current reliance on state standards, assessment tests and the No Child Left Behind Act (Shanahan 2002). Every elementary teacher must have research-based resources to help…

The authors offer research studies and other documented evidence that teaching grammar without a meaningful context does not improve student writing, largely because that approach does not address the root causes of errors. Several resources that support this position and offer more productive strategies are summarized, including the authors'…

In this article, the author describes her responsibilities as an instructional support staff person. As a writing skills teacher, she functions as a support person to students and her fellow teachers. Her responsibilities are to teach content and strategies, monitor student progress, and work directly with the students and the inservice teachers…

The literacy narrative can make a unique contribution to composition studies, illustrating both how our culture inhibits literacy and how people overcome difficult obstacles in learning to read and write. Literacy narratives highlight for writing teachers the life lessons that have advanced people toward their literacy goals. These stories are…

Scenario writing is a method to promote creative thinking and a proactive approach to dealing with the future. ATEE's Research and Development Centre "Curricula in Teacher Education" has adapted this method for use in teacher education. A Comenius funded course on Scenario writing was run over five days with teachers, teacher--educators,…

This paper examines one department of journalism's efforts to identify, address, and correct basic writing deficiencies for students seeking a journalism degree with a concentration in news-editorial, broadcast, or public relations. Northwestern State University's (NSU) Department of Journalism, located in a mid-sized, open-admissions university…

Dissatisfied with his method of teaching composition to high school seniors, Joseph M. Shosh sought ways to move from teaching as transmission to teaching as transaction. Asking students to use a dialogic discourse diary resulted in improved thinking and writing. He offers the assignments he gave and documents students? reactions and growth.

The methods used by a teacher to engage at-risk high school students in reading and writing are highlighted. It is reported that students are provided with the first steps of success, language awareness and a sense of belonging in the school and the community.

This article explores some of the implications inherent in the pedagogical strategy of encouraging students to 'try' or 'have a go', particularly within the context of early writing and spelling. Pedagogical approaches built on the assumption that the learner will need to try in order to learn are construed here as emanating from and contributing…

Basic writing students and online learning are not necessarily an ideal match. In hopes of stimulating more conversation and research on how technology can best advance the basic writing curriculum, this article first classifies the problems students and faculty encounter when a basic writing class moves online and discusses the pedagogical…

The author asserts that "Children benefit when teachers and parents reinforce the same concepts and ideas. For this to happen, teachers and parents must have some knowledge of what happens in the classroom and what happens at home that support reading acquisition." In this article, the author describes several strategies that teachers can share…

Summary Street is educational software based on latent semantic analysis (LSA), a computer method for representing the content of texts. The classroom trial described here demonstrates the power of LSA to support an educational goal by providing automatic feedback on the content of students' summaries. Summary Street provides this feedback in an…

In this study, we examined whether early, supplemental strategy instruction in planning helped ameliorate writing difficulties. Second-grade students experiencing difficulty learning to write were taught a strategy for planning and writing stories. Learning to use the strategy had a positive effect on writing, as students' stories became more…

Two key components of recent educational reform are (a) new attention to writing as an important academic skill, and (b) the establishment of national and state standards for student achievement. State standards for writing vary considerably in their form and specificity. Many are not listed separately but are included within integrated language…