A survey of 1,663 teachers of students with blindness examined their attitudes about braille literacy. This article summarizes their comments concerning teaching braille, making the print-braille decision, use of technological devices, the importance of braille as a learning medium, use of slate and stylus, teachers' braille skills, legislation,…

Semistructured interviews with 10 deaf and 10 hearing young adults found that instrumental writing occurred as frequently between deaf children and hearing parents as between deaf children and deaf parents. Deaf respondents did less personal or expressive writing than hearing peers. Implications for literacy instruction and further research are…

Examines how composition courses help students to change and effect change through writing about themselves and issues immediately relevant to their lives, whether that be the college campus, or, in the case of inmates, low socioeconomic living. Argues for a student-centered activism through language and ethnographic, hands-on research. (TB)

Shares information about how four African American vernacular English speakers have successfully used their language abilities--the language of their everyday lives--within the context of their expository writing. Discusses principles that have guided one teacher in her work with language diverse students. (TB)

Reviews a study examining the influence of rhetorical specification in writing prompts on the writing quality of 7th-, 9th-, and 11th-grade students, and college freshmen. Analyzes the main and interactive effects of topic, purpose, and audience on writing quality. Indicates that students use different kinds of rhetorical information at different…

This article offers suggestions for teaching effective learning strategies to low-achieving students. It considers selecting the strategy, getting students involved, describing the strategy, modeling the strategy, remembering the strategy, practicing the strategy, and generalizing the strategy. Examples in composition and reading are offered. (DB)

Describes how a hypertext database "Focus on Writing" was created to assist English language teachers of Hong Kong secondary schools in the teaching of continuous writing. The article delineates the theoretical and practical rationale behind the evolving design of this database and discusses the emerging issues of this technology. (30…

Two educators studied the effect of written teacher and peer comments on ninth graders' writing assignments, creating a peer response activity and analyzing student responses to a survey. Results showed that students considered both teacher and peer comments requesting additional information and correcting mechanics most helpful in the revision…

Compares formal writing (analytical essays) and informal writing (short answer workbook-type exercises identifying main themes and ideas) as part of English-as-a-Second-Language reading education. Examines informal and formal writing assignments given to groups of students of comparable reading ability. Shows that formal writing did more to…

Six strategies for assessing young students' writing and tracking their progress include conducting a survey regarding students' thoughts on writing, focusing anecdotal notes on students' writing, meeting for quick conferences, fixing students' work to celebrate growth, sharing rubrics with students, and keeping notebooks and portfolios. (SM)

Describes how 20 high school teachers and university professors collaborated to initiate writing projects across the high school curriculum. Notes that the group learned the most about how to develop their collaborative cross-curricular writing program from projects in earth science and chemistry. Suggests that teaching students how to help one…

Offers a case study of a first-grader who had trouble learning and for whom drawing was the symbol system used to organize and store her thoughts. Describes how her resource teacher capitalized on this and used drawing to move her from the visual to the spoken and then to the written word. (SR)

Examines the response of one high school to three of the explicit aims of the Kentucky writing portfolio assessment. Suggests limitations to the presumed validity of the assessment by revealing some of the intended and unintended consequences of the state's attempt to use the assessment to shape school writing programs, to encourage classroom…

Discusses two danger signs for writing across the curriculum (WAC) program survival, dealing with their cross-curricular structure, and their heavy dependence on just one person for their health and continuation. Outlines two cases from the history of writing instruction at the University of Michigan providing a precautionary tale for both kinds…

Reflects on the author's long, demanding, and rewarding career as a teacher and administrator in community colleges. Describes how she found herself an advocate of change in the profession in the 1970s, the differences she sensed and thrived upon in the community college experience, and how flexibility was the key to successfully teaching the wide…