For five years, the author has been advocating a writing program administrator (WPA) position at his two-year college. While the vice president of instruction has been sympathetic, the issue has been funding. As a means to prepare and to justify the WPA's continuing existence, he has set to work mapping out the terrain, trying to anticipate the…

Deciding to enroll in a creative writing class, a quick web-search by this author revealed that there were classes in the local adult education college, run by an independent writing school. The author met one of the tutors, discussed his needs, and found himself enrolled in a short- story writing class. As it happened, so smitten was he that he…

In the late 1970s, poet Lewis MacAdams labeled the many writers beginning to visit schools as "wild cards in the deck of education," bringing fresh possibilities to a somewhat staid curriculum. Now, nearly thirty years later, the authors wonder if it isn't time to renew the metaphor, as everyone strive to name what happens when poets bring their…

In "Bird by Bird", Anne Lamott compares writing to a tea ceremony: "That thing you had to force yourself to do--the actual act of writing, turns out to be the best part. It's like discovering that while you thought you needed the tea ceremony for the caffeine, what you really needed was the tea ceremony. The act of writing turns out to be its own…

In this article, the author focuses on John Rechy's debut novel, "City of Night," to consider how cultural pressures, and later disciplinary pressures in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender/Transsexual/queer (LGBT/q) studies, affect the acquisition of critical literacies, particularly among students and scholars who follow the moment of gay…

In this article, the author examines various publications published in 1963 in an attempt to look for relevance in a changing publication scene. The author considers Gordon Parks's reportorial photographs and accompanying personal essay, "What Their Cry Means to Me," as an act of publishing with implications for the teaching of written…

This article presents four symposium papers on assessment. It includes: (1) "Closed Systems and Standardized Writing Tests" (Chris M. Anson); (2) "Information Illiteracy and Mass Market Writing Assessments" (Les Perelman); (3) "Genre, Testing, and the Constructed Realities of Student Achievement" (Mya Poe); and (4)…

A multiple-probe across-subjects design was used to examine persuasive writing performance of six 2nd- through 5th- grade students with emotional/behavior disorders (EBD). Students' writing was evaluated before and after self-regulated strategy development (SRSD) instruction for the POW (Pick my idea, Organize my notes, Write and say more) + TREE…

Two instructional experiments used randomized, controlled designs to evaluate the effectiveness of writing instruction for students with carefully diagnosed dyslexia, which is both an oral reading and writing disorder, characterized by impaired "word" decoding, reading, and spelling. In Study 1 (4th to 6th grade sample and 7th to 9th grade…

This article seeks answers to questions, such as how children's writing develops and how young students express themselves in writing at various stages of their development. This article reviews the literature through a wide lens as it examines elementary students' writing and is intended to lead to a more comprehensive understanding of…

"Motivating Literacy Learners in Today's World" provides insights into a broad spectrum of children's literacy learning. Motivation is the key theme and the authors show how this can be achieved through reading for pleasure; in writing activities at a number of levels; and through oral language development. Chapters include: (1)…

That there is a divide between research and practice is a common lament across policy-oriented disciplines, and education is no exception. Rhetoric abounds about the role research plays (or does not play) in the improvement of schools and classrooms, and policy makers push solutions that are rooted in assumptions about the way that research…

In a project-based approach to teaching a foreign language at the university level, students are often required to participate in several task-based writing activities. In doing so, language learners not only write incorrect forms, but also correct forms of the same structures, both of which provide useful information on their strengths and…

Previous research on the effects of peer-editing in bringing about language development generally examined the linguistic performance of only a few students and did not focus on specific language errors nor used a control group. To counteract these limitations, this study used a pre-test/post-test comparison group quasi-experimental design to…

As proposed by social constructive theorists, meaningful learning and individual development were achieved through social interaction. To foster social interaction among students, this study formed an online learning community in which they played multiple roles as writers, editors and commentators. In playing different roles, they read peers'…