Focusing on recent composition theory, this paper offers suggestions for writing teachers in applying concepts of dialogic discourse directly to the pedagogy of the college writing course. The first section of the paper addresses the influence of the social constructionist work on interpretation theory by Richard Rorty, Clifford Geertz, and…

Ways of implementing a classroom-based staff development Writing Project, based on a model developed at the Teachers College, Columbia University (New York), are described in this guide. The first section deals with beginning the project in a school and covers what the Writing Project is, where it is located, what staff development entails, who…

This practicum was designed to address the problem of low quantity and poor quality of writing in two lower level English classes (50 students). The objectives were to increase motivation for writing, thereby improving overall writing production by the students. A writing workshop was designed to improve the motivation of the students by…

A practicum incorporating cooperative problem-solving and cooperative process writing was developed to improve attitudes toward writing and to improve writing skills. The participants, 28 heterogeneously grouped grade 12 students, worked in cooperative learning groups throughout a summer session to develop their writing and their problem-solving…

Both half-year and full-year students enrolled in the 1988/89 College Discovery and Development Program of the New York City public schools surpassed the program's evaluation objectives in writing and mathematics and came close to meeting the objective in reading. The program, affiliated with the City University of New York, is a basic skills…

Whole language has to do with beliefs about language and learners that lead to beliefs about curriculum and instructional procedures. The term emerged as a label for the way language is thought to be learned: as a cohesive organization of systems working together as one--as a whole. The term whole language also refers to the learner as being…

Students' essays are increasingly being included in the assessment of their writing ability. One scholar feels that in contrast to more traditional tests of writing ability, the Written Language Assessment bases its assessment on whole pieces of text the students write. The essays represent three different types of writing: expressive,…

Arguing that being "literate" carries a different expectation from even the recent past, this book asserts that schools must explicitly teach the nature of language, and that students must be given clear criteria for, and support in, achieving excellence in controlling the different types of written language used in their various fields…

A study evaluated the effectiveness of an Instructional Television Program (ITV) designed to model and teach aspects of process writing to second-grade children. Two second-grade teachers and their students (each class contained 24 children) comprised the experimental groups; one second-grade teacher and 24 students comprised the control group.…

Intended for reading professionals, this yearbook contains 13 articles dealing with reading and allied fields divided into 2 sections: "Issues" and "Practices." The following articles focus on issues: "Wish Fulfillment and Other Dangers in Reading" (Joan Develin Coley); "Emergent Reading Research: Synthesis and…

After a year of research and planning, Troy State University's Writing-Across-the-Curriculum program began in winter quarter of 1988. Program proponents believe that: (1) writing is a powerful tool for learning, and (2) the instructor in a discipline can best teach the kinds of writing, research, and documentation pertinent to his field.…

This report presents first year (1984-85) findings of The Writing Project, a 2-year school-based study of the use of word processing to improve learning disabled children's writing skills. Based in three Massachusetts school districts, the project focused in the first year on intensive observation of 14 fourth grade children as they wrote with…

Intended for teachers in Tasmania, this booklet discusses making sense of language, the nature of written language, language and context, and organizing knowledge of the world. Chapter 1, Understanding Reading, contains a general discussion of the reading process as well as sections on the beginning and continuing reader, planning a reading…

Intended to evaluate the effectiveness of the "Success in Reading and Writing Program" of the District of Columbia Public Schools, this report was also designed to help teachers make the best use of the program and to provide administrators with information upon which to base decisions concerning its continuation. The introduction…

The product of a course at the University of Pittsburgh, this book offers educators the opportunity to see how the acts of reading, writing, and thinking that characterize work in academia appear to those students who lack adequate preparation for such work--namely, basic writers. The introduction to the book presents an overview of the course and…