Imaginations are the best tools people have to avoid future conflicts and unpopular wars. People may never find the panacea to eliminate all violence, but perhaps if students develop their imaginations today, America as a nation can begin to solve more problems with creativity than with fists. Imaginations allow for better decision-making.…

In this study, 114 preschoolers (M age = 53 months) completed a battery of literacy assessments to explore the interplay between name writing and letter knowledge in early literacy learners. Name writing was significantly related to children's letter knowledge, and the relationships were moderate to high. However, many children exhibited an…

In this article, the author shares the success he experienced when he used some of aspects of "This I Believe" series in his classroom. Started in the 1950s and resurrected on National Public Radio (NPR) a few years ago, "This I Believe" is a series of statements of core beliefs from people of all backgrounds and ages: celebrities, politicians,…

Mark Rabinovich describes the iPass system, an innovative online tutoring system for remedial writing students that has been in use at Queensborough Community College since 2006. The design of iPass was based on constructivist learning theories that conceptualize learning as a transactional and dynamic process that can occur anywhere at any time.…

The paper employs interdisciplinarity as a theoretical lens for describing meaningful content/ language partnerships and establishing an ontology for such partnerships. Interdisciplinary collaboration, as defined by scholars, entails the integration of knowledge across domains and the clear valuing of all contributors in addressing an issue…

The purpose of the study is to explore the Malaysian rural learners' self-efficacy in writing after assistance given by a teacher. The social cognitive theory and socio-cultural theory are used as the theoretical framework to pursue the discussion on the effects of teacher's assistance on learners' writing self-efficacy. A case study approach is…

This study of 32 public secondary school English teachers in the state of Alabama and of 477 students in these teachers' participating classes, employed teacher and student surveys and early- and late-in-course samples of timed narrative and persuasive writing. As predicted, NWP teachers wrote more extensively than comparison teachers, and the…

If you want to learn how to shoot a basketball, you begin by carefully observing someone who knows how to shoot a basketball. If you want to be a writer, you begin by carefully observing the work of accomplished writers. Recognizing the importance that modeling plays in the learning process, high school English teacher Kelly Gallagher shares how…

This study grew out of the realization that implicit literacy expectations between working class United Auto Workers (UAW) staff and professional class staff were complicating the filling out and filing of a position audit form. Professional class supervisors had designed the form as a measure of fairness, in that each UAW employee on campus was…

The EPILLAW Paradigm is a practical method for developing writing skills. It consists of an original nine-level taxonomy and sequential methodology of listening, speaking, writing and reading. In this method, the development of writing precedes the development of reading. The work consists of two books. In the introductory book, the author…

In the following dissertation, I develop heuristics for collaboratively and sustainably contributing to community infrastructures through writing. Based on the findings of an observational study on how students enrolled in my first year composition and service-learning class created new media writing projects with community partners and were able…

Students in public schools serving poor and working-class students are inundated by the effects of high-stakes examinations. Teachers are demoralized and students suffer substandard curricular and pedagogical experiences. These effects are articulated by students and teachers in the high school that provided the setting for the critical…

This dissertation reports my study of the institutionally situated challenges involved in designing and maintaining Rhetoric and Composition doctoral program websites via two primary research methods. First, I conduct content analyses of nine methodically selected doctoral program websites in order to develop a detailed set of site…

The silence regarding Appalachia is mirrored in the relative scarcity of focused studies regarding Appalachian dialect, composition, and classroom issues. Little work has been done exploring the ways the composition classroom, concerned as it is with language and the production of discourse, can affect Appalachian students' linguistic and social…

The authors suggest using scripting as a strategy to mentor and enhance author's voice in writing. Through gradual release, students use authentic literature as a model for writing with voice. The authors also propose possible extensions for independent practice, integration across content areas, and tips for evaluation.