A study investigated a holistic approach to the assessment of students' writing skills in a high school that is part of a residential treatment program for adolescents. High school students were asked to produce spontaneous writing samples in the fall and spring of the 1990-91 school year. The students were asked to write about someone they…

Two instructors with different approaches to writing collaborated in the preparation of a junior-level advanced college composition course. Both instructors were concerned about the applicability of the "workshop" in teaching composition, and about the question of how to address authority in the workshops. Students were asked to respond…

The research reported in this paper is a case study of one student's learning in a writers' workshop where two teacher-researchers were developing new curriculum and instructional practices. The case study was developed out of a larger qualitative study in which 47 fifth-grade students' growth as writers was studied over a 1-year period as they…

Two papers presented at two different conferences and both discussing issues related to writing across the curriculum, are presented in this document. The first paper, "Wanted: Guidelines for Teaching Writing in Non-Writing Courses," (Jan Keessen), presented at the 1992 "four C's" conference, discusses the need to gather data…

During the summer of 1990, a university English education professor in Indiana responded to the writing of 20 fourth through seventh graders via a computer installed in his home. The students wrote daily anything ranging from a 3-line haiku to 10-20 computer-screen stories. The classroom teacher took the students through the steps in the writing…

Designed for elementary and secondary English and language arts teachers, this book provides 74 lists for developing instructional materials and planning lessons. The book also includes 89 practical activities and reproducible line master worksheets that motivate students to simultaneously improve writing skills, word usage, and vocabulary. For…

The development of narrative competence is an important part of the English curriculum in the early secondary school years. A study examined how four seventh-grade girls (two novice and two expert writers) responded to computer-based metacognitive guidance in the form of procedural facilitations. The facilitations were designed to assist the…

A writing workshop held during a school holiday in an urban center in Southern Africa illustrated the premise that writing experiences with literary patrons can result in benefits for young authors. The workshop was planned with the purpose of encouraging children to write in a setting that emphasized the establishment of a children's library, a…

Recent writing theorists have recommended the use of collaboration and workshop techniques in writing classrooms, and the clinical experience of Donald C. Winnicott lies at the heart of this current thinking about collaborative classrooms. Winnicott's observations of mothers and infants produced a respect for families and a skepticism about the…

A study examined how student-writers accommodated a real audience--that is how they adapted their writing to communicate clearly and forcefully with an audience other than the teacher. Subjects, 18 students in a pre-composition, remedial English course at Indiana University East, were asked to revise the formal drafts into a…

Representing current research and effective practice in English education, this book provides inservice and preservice teachers of English practical activities derived from sound educational theory and research to help make their job in the classroom effective and enjoyable. The book is meant to be an easy-to-read and useful source for teaching…

The hallmark of the reading/writing workshop approach is its flexibility--its accommodation to the unique creativity of every student and of every teacher across a landscape of unique and distinct classroom communities. From the collective works of leading proponents, the following principles for workshop teachers can be liberally abstracted: the…

Breaking down gender barriers in composition and literature classrooms suggests that teachers rethink the forms of writing they demand of their students (e.g., argumentation and exposition) and that they encourage a wide range of approaches which account for gender-specific modes of writing and interpreting texts. Various writing assignments such…

In a feminist classroom an instructor who acts as an "interested party" rather than an authority, fosters an environment of care and connection which can result in life-changing discoveries for the participants. Drawing on David Bleich's conception of a "socially generous research" that removes hierarchical barriers between…

Providing information to help develop students' sense of narrative and to show them specific test-taking strategies, this publication is helpful to teachers as they ready their students for the North Carolina Fourth Grade Writing Assessment. The publication provides materials on generating ideas for writing, selecting topics, revising, developing…