Although the needs of American Indian college students in writing classes are very similar to those of Anglo basic writers, Indian writers often bring cultural and linguistic differences into the writing classroom. Indians are oriented only in the present, which affects their use of verb constructions; they are oriented toward sharing, which…

The nearly two hundred activities in this teaching guide for language arts in the junior high and middle school are arranged in five sections: studying language, communicating orally, reading and reading literature, writing, and listening and viewing. Each section opens with a list of activities, a brief introductory statement, and suggested…

Reviews recent research showing that creative composition should begin in kindergarten. Presents practical ways teachers can help young children learn to write and thus to read. (FL)

Traces the problems teachers solve as they learn to teach writing and reading from the same philosophical perspective. Finds that as the emphasis in their classrooms shifted more to the process, the teachers changed their roles. (FL)

Suggests that Whole Language is not the whole word approach, nor merely teaching skills in context, nor the Language Experience approach, nor a new term for the Open Classroom, but rather a point of view about language, literacy, and content learning. (JC)

Argues against direct formal grammar instruction in middle school. Notes that even students with high IQ's frequently score low on cognitive development measures, with children in the concrete stage of thinking usually unable to identify simple subjects and verb phrases. Recommends that until students achieve a level of formal reasoning they…

Describes a small, decentralized, flexible program for training instructors of freshman composition. Recommends ways to capture the flavor of small programs in larger university settings. (SKC)

Examines teacher attitudes that inhibit experimentation and stifle the development of beginning writers. Illustrates the drawbacks of insisting on (1) using only one approach to learning to write, (2) keeping a quiet classroom, (3) fitting letters between the lines of ruled paper, (4) using primary pencils for all writing activities, and (5)…

Examines the experience of reading student writing by holding it against current views of reading from literary theory and composition studies. Describes this experience as a concentrated effort at once to read and not to "read" the student writing. (MS)

Examines the long-term effects of the 1980 Virginia Tech Faculty Writing Workshop, a writing across the curriculum workshop that trained teachers from a variety of disciplines to use writing as a means of teaching their disciplines. Shows writing across the curriculum programs work, but that teaching through writing does require increased time and…

Describes study that examined the effect of the use of microcomputers as word processors in a college freshman English composition course. Treatments for the experimental and control groups are described, dependent and independent variables are explained, and results based on pretest and posttest writing samples are analyzed. (21 references) (LRW)

Claims that there are many writing teachers, not just a few English/language arts teachers who are so designated, and that writing is already taught across the curriculum. Argues that teacher educators must reconsider their exclusive concern with methods and focus on teachers' theories of teaching and learning. (MS)

Offers an approach to text analysis that discusses what makes good writing good. Argues that good writing involves the presentation of propositions that are not too dense, in a schema that is familiar or explained carefully, requiring not much inference on the part of the reader, and in a pattern that is coherent from beginning to end. (MS)

"Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition" is a program that successfully teaches reading, writing, and language arts in heterogeneous intermediate classes containing mainstreamed special education and remedial reading students, by combining mixed-ability cooperative learning teams and same-ability reading groups. (Author/JDD)

Claims that teachers sometimes need to set up and direct purposeful writing situations to make sure that children gain experience in different kinds of writing. Discusses how teachers can help students tackle a challenging writing task, and describes strategies which students use to deal with a difficult writing assignment. (MM)