By employing techniques learned through special education research together with the process approach to teaching writing, the composition teacher can help the ever-increasing number of learning disabled (LD) students in the developmental writing class to improve their writing. Using the process approach, LD students first concentrate on gathering…

A practicum addressing the problems of low motivation and poor writing quality of 50 underachieving 9th-grade basic skills students is described in this report. The objectives were to increase motivation among the students and to improve the quality of their essay writing. Peer tutoring was used as a method for encouraging students to help each…

A program was developed and implemented to help identify, give direction to, and build self-confidence in children who lack emergent reading skills on entering first grade. Objectives were for 80% of the 18 students at a Florida elementary school to recognize the basic concepts about print, and that two or more cueing systems be used to decode or…

Recognizing that good writing skills are critical to achieving college and career success, the Communications Department at Moraine Valley Community College (MVCC) initiated a 10-month research and planning process which culminated in the establishment of a Writing Center (WC) in the fall of 1990. The objectives of the WC are to: (1) offer all…

A program, developed to train teachers to use the computer, is based on the belief that adults acquire computer literacy in the same way that children do: sequentially and with hands-on experience. Programming is taught first. Reliance is placed on peer teaching as well as teaching by a skilled instructor. The role of play is emphasized in…

Fourteen papers are presented from a conference on severe behavior disorders of children and youth. The following titles are included: "Beyond the Classroom: The Teacher of Behaviorally Disordered Pupils in a Social System" (C. Nelson); "Correctional Education and Special Education--An Emerging Partnership; or 'Born to Lose'" (B. Wolford);…

This book is about a set of alternatives to the traditional instructional system: cooperative learning methods. These are techniques that use cooperative task structures, in which students spend much of their class time working in 4-6 member heterogeneous groups. These learning methods also use cooperative incentive structures, in which students…

The development of a program for the training of Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) counselors in Minnesota was the occasion for an exercise in "knowledge engineering." A "situation book" approach was designed to help structure and organize the specialized knowledge accumulated by experienced counselors and to…

A description is given of a cooperative learning experience conduct with small groups of racially mixed, underachieving high school students. Twenty-nine students were organized in groups of three or four members each. The groups worked together in all laboratory assignments and daily work, and studied together for quizzes and tests in a science…

Inservice education in many schools has shifted from the use of outside experts to the education of master teachers who serve as inside educators. The effectiveness of the use of master teachers has been demonstrated. To make this process more effective, there is a need to understand the dynamics that the master teachers confront when they take…

"Peer resource" refers to any program that uses children and youth to work with or help other children and youth; programs such as youth service, cooperative learning, peer tutoring, cross-age tutoring, peer helping, peer mediation, peer leadership, and youth involvement. This paper advocates the adoption of a peer resource model of…

Classroom teachers and administrators often see the writing lab as a simple extension of the classroom experience, rather than as the tutorial practice that it should be with interactive one-to-one teaching. Students should be acting participants, spending at least 50% of lab time talking, questioning, trying out, practicing, and composing. Tutors…

In 1986, New York City's summer Preparation for Raising Education Performance (PREP) program operated for the fifth consecutive year. Summer PREP is designed to ease incoming students' transition into high school and to provide instruction in basic writing skills. The program also provided theme-based instruction, enrichment, and guidance services…

This report examines whether cooperative learning can be used to promote individual achievement, and identifies conditions under which a benefit can be expected. Two experiments were conducted at the Quartermaster School, Fort Lee, Virginia. The first experiment compared test performance of 280 trainees after they had completed practical exercises…

A first-hand account of eighth grade students' experiences in learning to write, this monograph, written by students, provides teachers and students with a model for talking about the writing process. The comments in the monograph reflect the students' belief that people can learn to be good writers by writing frequently, sharing their writing and…