Using children's books that reflect the cultural heritage of the American Southwest, this paper offers suggestions for integrating the language arts through reading, writing, and listening activities. Activities are arranged into two sections: (1) integrated language arts approaches to writing springing from Southwest picture books by Byrd Baylor,…

Studies in developmental pragmatics have demonstrated that language learning is a fundamentally social (rather than fundamentally cognitive) phenomenon. It would seem, then, that teachers of writing need to find ways to create situations in which written language serves purposes the students see as real and is supported by an authentic, pragmatic…

A major topic of interest for teachers participating in a graduate course in reading and computers was the application of word processing to facilitate reading and writing instruction. The course strategy for learning about computers and reading and writing instruction involved identifying helpful articles for theoretical background and practical…

Designed to help teachers find an effective approach in teaching expository writing, this guide divides expository writing into five main types: definition/classification, comparison/contrast, thesis/proof, problem/solution, and inference (drawing conclusions). Five different starter techniques are presented with each of the five main types of…

The teaching activities presented in this article focus on a bookmaking party, which gives children a format in which they can publish and share their activities in a formal way, provides them with books for recording their writing, and involves students, parents, and the community with children's writing. The paper describes the steps for…

Noting the rediscovery by composition scholars of the tradition of classical rhetoric, this collection of essays explores the resurgence in the teaching of written discourse in college English departments. The 18 articles and their authors are as follows: (1) "The Revival of Rhetoric in America," by Robert Connors, Lisa Ede, and Andrea…

This paper describes an in-service workshop on writing, which begins by having teachers air negative feelings and false conceptions about the writing process, involves the teachers in writing and introduces the writing process concept. A sentence completion activity, integrated with the viewing of a videotape, helps teachers examine their…

A survey of 239 newspapers was conducted to explore the use of writing coach programs at these papers. The coaches' backgrounds, newsroom factors, specific writing problems, budgetary considerations, and implications for journalism education were all explored, as were the perceptions of editors supervising the writing coaches. Of the 239 papers…

As a result of research showing that students are more motivated when English teachers avoid grades and marks, this book focuses on ways to involve students in the assessment process. The book covers the following topics: learning and reflection, students controlling language, the purpose of assessment, assessing students' relationship to the…

In this article a method to improve sentence writing ability called sentence combining is explained. The potential effects of sentence combining are related and relevant research summarized. In addition, how to introduce sentence combining practice to a class, key instructional components including oral practice and peer assistance, sources of…

With support and guidance, graduate students can successfully pursue academic writing for publication. In graduate circles, academic writing is presumed to be a solitary activity for which students already are prepared. Yet, the reality is that students tend to find academic writing difficult and stressful, and they often look to university…

This journal issue presents teaching ideas based on the city of Chicago and the literary works of its citizens. The first article describes a combined social studies/English course based on the study of Chicago's influence on literature and history. Included is a course outline with required readings, class activities and assignments, an…

Genesee Community College in Batavia, New York, adopted James Kinneavy's aims of discourse theory as the basis of its composition program. The program is a two-semester course for students who intend to transfer to four-year colleges. In a comparable nontransfer sequence, the first semester doubles as a remedial course for ill-prepared transfer…

"Grammar Graphics" is a technique for teaching English grammar to children in grades three through five using symbols to represent each part of speech. In this way children can graphically perceive and understand the function of words in a sentence. Basically the students learn symbols for all parts of speech except the preposition and conjunction…

This study reports on ways student under-achievement is being dealt with in the Bilingual Program of Jackson, New Jersey in grades 1-5. The study is limited to students in one school and was carried out during one 12-month period. It focuses on the following issues: (1) teaching methods which are best suited to solve the problems of student…