An activity has been used successfully for several years in a middle-school computer class to integrate writing instruction with computer science. Taking approximately five class periods, the activity consists of three phases: (1) the 6th-grade students use paper and pencil to write a story in any literary format; (2) 11th- and 12th-grade…

This encyclopedia is a comprehensive explanation of the study and teaching of English and language arts at all levels of education. It includes media, technology, curriculum, learning, and assessment in composition, literature, reading, drama, and language study. Designed to be used as a major resource by administrators, teachers, and students,…

A study addressed the problem of making accurate descriptions of how teachers in first-grade classrooms help their students learn to read and write. It also related the approaches to reading instruction that teachers use to their students' views of reading and their achievement at the end of first grade. For the study, information was gathered…

Despite accompanying drawbacks, the Internet information system known as Gopher presents a rich variety of potential benefits to writing pedagogies and to educational administrators. Writing teachers need to overcome tendencies to think of exploration of the Internet information resources as something to be uncritically adopted and as something to…

The percentage of students who speak and write English as a Second Language (ESL) is steadily increasing on all college campuses. Although only 8% of the student body at the Pennsylvania State University are ESL students, 15% of the Penn State Writing Center clientele are ESL students. In the past, the Penn State peer tutor training program has…

This pamphlet describes the Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition (CIRC) program, a comprehensive approach to reading and writing instruction for grades 2 through 8. The pamphlet addresses the three principal elements of the program: story-related activities, direct instruction in reading comprehension, and integrated writing/language…

A recent article in the "Assemby for Computers in English (ACE) Newsletter" explains what most instructors of English already know--that students in most writing classes produce papers for which the primary purpose is the teacher. As the Internet becomes more widely available, students will have more access to what Howard Rheingold calls…

Offering guidance on diagnostic and developmental techniques, this teacher's guide helps teachers to assess pupils' understanding and day-to-day progress in writing and to identify appropriate next steps to help pupils make progress. The teacher's guide examines the process of writing, offering guidance on classroom activities relating to…

A teacher at Western Illinois University, who had resisted using the portfolio system in a writing classroom, developed a shorter portfolio unit to incorporate the best aspects of portfolios without many of the disadvantages. By the beginning of the fifth week of the semester, the students had written three papers, participated in a peer exchange…

A study investigated the effectiveness of the Writing Express program (similar to the "Writing to Read" program, but with the distinction that students write in their second-grade classrooms and follow thematic maps integrated into the regular classroom curriculum). All 895 second-grade students in six Writing Express schools and 6…

The process paradigm for teaching writing has been the dominant curricular model for the past 20 years, but by anatomizing various dimensions of this paradigm, it becomes clear why it, like any other paradigmatic model, will not last forever. To be adopted and become normative, any new paradigm has to appeal to salient features of the prevailing…

This paper shows how changing the learning situations in which psychology students find themselves can affect their motivation to write differently. When students have something to say to someone for some reason, they can learn both content and important lessons about writing. The paper describes a project that involved an introductory college…

Writing is at the heart of education. The business of English teachers is to make people more comfortable in using language, particularly written language. Language serves two broad functions: (1) representing elements of external reality; and (2) defining relationships among the people who use the language. The writer's first need is to use the…

Teachers who are looking for new ways to approach the research paper, and to use cooperative learning in the classroom, can employ the "we-search" paper--a combination of cooperative/collaborative learning and Ken Macrorie's (1988) "I-search" paper. To get started, teachers should: (1) introduce the project and explain its…

Intended as a practical planning and instructional tool, this teacher resource manual was developed to assist Alberta (Canada) classroom teachers to implement the high school Integrated Occupational English Language Arts Program. The manual contains: (1) additional information about the goals and objectives of the curriculum; (2) thematic contexts…