Analysis of the processes of composing in a distinctly foreign language, Japanese for Anglophone Canadians, suggests a need for decisions concerning instructional strategies for "keeping up the standard" (associated with native language composition) and for "lowering the standard" in order to access knowledge in the foreign…

Describes a collaborative-writing assessment system that rewards each student both for the group's performance and for individual participation. Presents a survey of student attitudes toward an assignment incorporating the assessment system, and reveals that students perceived the assessment as fair and effective. (MM)

Describes one high school English teacher's experiment with assigning stories instead of analytical essays. Argues for retelling and storytelling as a valuable resource in the high school curriculum. (RAE)

Describes how first grade and fifth grade students teamed together to coauthor books. Provides an example of a story planning chart. (MM)

Explores the social circumstances of academic writing. Looks at student and professional academic writers and readers as participants in a complex literary genre, with its own conventions, ideological assumptions, and epistemological implications. Argues that academics must become cultural critics. (RAE)

Reading and writing instruction for gifted students should address their actual use in meaningful contexts. Reading instruction should emphasize use of authentic materials, modified use of basals, divergent student responses, etc. Writing instruction should emphasize writing as a tool for learning, function before form, and opportunities for…

Follow-up activities are essential to maintaining a writing-across-the-curriculum program. La Salle University created a second stage of program development through new workshops and symposia, collaborative teaching and co-authoring, and opportunities for student involvement. (MSE)

An annotated directory of writing-across-the-curriculum programs in two-year and four-year institutions in the United States and Canada, based on a 1987 survey, is presented. Annotations contain contact names and addresses and information about program design and components. (MSE)

Reviews research examining factors that impede Native American writing success. Suggests specific instructional techniques for establishing background for successful reading and writing. Examines Indian cultural realities and applies them to teaching models. Provides general guidelines, observations and approaches for teaching English to Native…

Evaluates a Navajo school program to improve writing skills using the process model and computers. Concludes that students' writing skills improved more in the experimental program than in comparable conventional classes, and that the new approach created a different pattern of growth in writing ability. (SV)

Discusses alternatives to formal grammatical analysis to teach syntax and usage, including sentence combining, expansion, and modelling/imitation; transformation exercises; and inductive grammar. Considers ways of teaching editing/proofreading skills, including peer editing, teacher/student conferences, and selective marking of errors. Discusses…

Illustrates the strength of the Socratic method by showing its applicability to a troubled student. Discusses feedback in the process-oriented approach to writing instruction, examining the purpose, nature, and focus of response. (MS)

Asserts that the language experience approach and invented spelling can be used to teach writing and reading in kindergarten. Notes that this approach takes advantage of children's enthusiasm for sharing stories, and individualizes literacy development. (MM)

Discusses the concept of emergent literacy, summarizing several theories and studies on children's early experiences with reading and writing. Examines the implications of this research for beginning reading and writing instruction. (MM)

Asserts that children's literacy development depends on the literacy environment at home. Provides suggestions for creating an environment which encourages literacy development. Notes that teachers should share these suggestions with parents. (MM)