When students and teachers talk about the arrangement of the experimental article in science, they usually take for granted a particular set of radically differentiated parts, including the abstract, the introduction, the materials and methods, the results, and the discussion. All handbooks work from this model. The implication of some literature…

Teachers often act more like artists, in the sense that they tend to jump back and forth between new trends in pedagogy and theory. Meanwhile, the public, concerned that student evaluation as manifested in grading procedures rests on shaky ground, are losing faith in the credibility of their children's teachers. One way for teachers of all…

Children's picture books, for example Allan Say's "Grandfather's Journey," can provide fresh materials and approaches to teaching reading to students in intermediate grades. One approach for preservice teachers learning to use children's literature might be to begin by planning possible uses for one or more literature selections and then…

In the 1991-92 school year, the Ontario (Canada) Ministry of Education conducted a province-wide writing review of Grade 12 students. The purpose was to provide public accountability at the school board and provincial levels, by gathering information on school program implementation and student achievement in English. Results of this survey,…

This monograph is a report of the first annual conference sponsored by the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies of Writing at the University of Minnesota. Both the conference and the monograph support the University's goal of fostering diversity within its academic community and also focus on one of the Center's goals: exploring the effects of…

Technical or professional writing classes may be enhanced through real-world writing assignments. Social-service agencies prove to be most agreeable and enthusiastic about working with students on various projects because they have limited--sometimes diminishing--financial support. In addition, most charities are accustomed to working with…

Debates as to the critical element in the writing process have usually taken sides as to either the preeminence of the writer or the essential nature of the text. Throughout two separate studies into the instruction of creative writing genres, the key element in every teaching situation is, instead of writer or text, the creation of a tangible…

A study examined the effectiveness of showcase writing portfolios, a 9-week intervention strategy to improve 18 first-grade students' writing. Students (who were from Roseville, Michigan) selected most of the entries in their "showcase" portfolios. Subjects' writing was assessed on three measures: the quality of writing was assessed…

According to Lawrence Chua, "zines" are "xeroxed broadsides" which "make marginality their starting point, empowering voices excluded from the slicker journals." According to "Ms," they are "downsized stapled rags...often defiantly tasteless." A subgenre of zines, "Grrrl zines" are those written, produced, and distributed by young women, usually…

Information on current trends and issues in English instruction drawn up by the directors of six National Council of Teachers of English commissions, is presented in this ninth annual report by the commissions. The commissions and the three commission directors represented in the report are: (1) Commission on Curriculum (Richard Adler); (2)…

This handbook is one of a series developed by the Texas Education Agency in response to requests to provide schools with additional information concerning the written composition portion of the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS). The handbook focuses on exit level grades 9 through 12. Following an introduction, the handbook is in two…

When teaching remedial writing in a correctional facility, a teacher may carry assumptions shaped by formal education that do not always translate to a prison context. These include the idea that the classroom will provide a sphere of intellectual activity, immune from heavy-handed institutional intrusions; that students will want to get to know…

Writing workshop is an approach that encourages students to become involved in the writing process by using their own topics and writing for their own reasons. A history of writing pedagogy shows that educators have recently moved from a skills based approach of teaching writing to a process based approach: teachers are now interested in showing…

A study investigated whether there would be any significant difference in test scores between students instructed in the use of graphic organizers during their creative writings and those students not instructed in their use. Graphic organizers can help writers keep to the topic by having their ideas in front of them as they are writing. They also…

Research efforts in the area of metaphor have concentrated on its natural occurrence in children's language, its role in comprehension processes, and the cognitive developmental stages influencing children's interpretations of metaphor. A study considered the influence of instruction in metaphor on the revising processes of third- and…