For parents of young children, this packet offers ideas of things to do at home to help in the development of children's reading and writing. The packet discusses how children learn and how parents can help; shows the stages a child goes through in learning to write; offers ideas for activities parents and children can do together; explains how…

This document consists of the two issues of this newsletter published during 1994. Issues contain articles and employment notices of interest to Montessori teachers and school administrators. Feature articles include: (1) "Meaningful In-Service Comes from Within Our Own School" (Anne Blickenstaff and Nancy Hildick), which discusses one…

The three papers collected in this document present opinions for and against the use of anthologies in introductory writing and literature classes at community colleges. The first paper, "College Students Must Read Book-Length Works," by Dallas E. Dillon, proposes that students, even non-traditional community college students, should be pushed to…

The term "rhetoric" is the object of a tug-of-war mostly between the study of certain forms of classical discourse and current teachers of (mostly college) writing who want to find a prehistory for their and "our" discipline. Efforts to invent and preserve disciplines have caused scholars to overlook more general considerations…

Noting that the role of phonics in learning to read is hotly debated, this book speaks to educators who seek to establish sound instructional practice that values phonics as an important tool for understanding and using written language within a balanced, comprehensive program for reading and writing. It explains what phonics is and the…

Activating a community-based and university-based support system for non-anglophonic speakers falls naturally to the writing center. Writing centers employ consultants and help students across the disciplines, and they have historically specialized in collaborative, non-graded teaching. In addition, teachers untrained in English as a Second…

A discussion of passive verb forms and the passive voice attempts to explain the nature of passives and to offer composition teachers some reference points for teaching them. Twelve arguments are proposed to explain resistance to the teaching of passives; each is termed a continuum in order to help assess understandings and attitudes. The 12…

A composition course for preservice teachers that emphasized writing as a means of inquiry elicited mixed results on student evaluations. The reading and writing assignments were designed to foster what the instructor calls "arguing to inquire." The purpose of this kind of writing is not to take a position and convince others of its…

Bringing together information elementary school teachers need to make balanced literacy instruction a reality, this book presents more than 90 short articles designed to be read in a brief period of time and suitable for use in after-school workshops. It presents ideas and instructional approaches teachers have found most valuable and effective in…

This book, part of the Whole Language Umbrella Series, offers a critical reexamination of "inquiry" and "whole language" as tools for rethinking literacy, schooling, and humanistic citizenship in the complexities of today's multicultural world. The essays in the book explore the political implications of literacy theories and…

This action research project describes a program to increase the basic writing ability and improve the attitude of sixth grade students. The targeted classroom was located in a unit district 45 miles northwest of a large metropolitan area. The district's population consists of a large amount of minority students and low-income families. Evidence…

This report discusses the outcomes of a study that investigated the efficacy of a referential communication task for teaching written language skills to elementary school-aged children with learning disabilities. Participants included five dyads, each consisting of one child with a learning disability and one child with typical language…

Based on the idea that instruction should drive technology, and not vice versa, this book shares ideas, options, and opportunities for using technology in the classroom. Vignettes and examples of classroom uses of technology are presented throughout the book to highlight concepts and help teachers support literacy goals. The essays in the book…

This annotated bibliography is intended to help teachers of composition improve writing quality of entering college students. The main body of the report is preceded by a brief summary of sources for faculty interested in examining the causes attributed to the decline in college students' writing skills, including: "National Assessment and the…

This paper addresses the lack of evaluative resources for computer-assisted reading and writing instruction (CARWI). It begins by discussing the benefits, drawbacks, and effectiveness of computer-based instruction. It then describes types of CARWI packages, including: (1) writing process software; (2) electronic handbooks; (3) interactive…