One of the techniques a teacher uses to enable her students to write poems is to use a story as a springboard. Her students read the story of "The Emperor and the Kite" (Yolen, 1991), which tells about Djeow Sew, the daughter of an ancient Chinese emperor. After students engaged in brainstorming the story, they drew Djeow Sew at the…

This 1994 technical report looks at California Early Literacy Learning (CELL), a staff development program designed to help elementary teachers strengthen their teaching of reading and writing. Reading Recovery and other research-based teaching methodologies have been organized into a framework for classroom instruction, and training in the…

The Remediation Plus System for reading, spelling, and writing is based on phonemic awareness training, linguistic gymnastics, and Orton Gillingham methodology. It employs multisensory, systematic phonics and "exhaustively thorough" lesson plans. The system contains a training manual, a testing manual, three training videos, a…

The papers in this volume were collected to honor T. Dudley-Evans on his retirement from the University of Birmingham. They explore a number of themes of current interest to those engaged in English language teaching and academic writing. The papers are: (1) Introduction (Martin Hewings); (2) Distance and Refined Selves: Educational Tensions in…

This book describes a drawing-based approach to writing. The first part of the book, "The Reasons Why," provides both background and rationale for the drawing-based literacy program and is in four parts: The Drawing/Writing Experience; Brain Science Informs Education; New Classrooms, New Teachers; and The New Literacy. The second part,…

The North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL) is one of 10 regional educational labs funded by the U.S. Department of Education. Since 1984, NCREL has been providing research-based resources and assistance to educators, policymakers, and communities in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. The primary…

This paper describes a format developed to confront those things that are taken for granted (TFGs) by inservice teachers of grades 2 through 5 as they struggled with learning to improve the teaching of writing in their school through the use of focused, rule-governed reflection on artifacts of practice. In addition to reflection, the participants…

Creative drama offers many techniques which provide a good way to approach curriculum goals. Introducing children to theater and play production in the classroom setting can create energy in the classroom, foster a sense of self-identification, and teach children to experientially appreciate drama as an art form. Multilevel learning is involved in…

Suggesting that students can be independent thinkers and writers, this book helps teachers implement an effective factual thinking and writing program into elementary, middle, and high schools. It demonstrates six different models of factual writing: narratives, procedures, descriptions, reports, explanations, and arguments. An introduction is…

This paper suggests that, based on certain rhetorical theories and on one instructor's experience, writing structures--both deep and surface--potentially serve three positive purposes: facilitation of thought, foundation for growth, and voice validation. The paper contends that the ultimate effect of these attributes is freedom. Concerns of some…

This paper considers the best way to design a training program for prospective and current writing center tutors. The paper uses the writing center at Texas Woman's University as an example, for even after training, weekly meetings, and focused readings, peer tutors were at a loss for what to do--most of the peer tutors just were not able to get…

Through a series of nine narrative essays, this book explores the stories that writing center directors and tutors encounter in their work with students. The essays in the book look at various aspects of the writing center, including how tutors meet and work with students; how tutors interact with students whose opinions and political beliefs are…

This paper presents an annotated list of 60 links to Rhetoric and Composition program resources on the World Wide Web. This listing of college-level writing programs in the United States in 1997 includes graduate departments in Rhetoric and the Teaching of Writing, as well as Composition programs which teach expository writing to undergraduates.…

Arguing that the ability to write effectively hinges upon having an adequate vocabulary, this digest explores some of the ways vocabulary influences writing ability, and how teachers can use vocabulary development specifically to improve writing skills. The digest suggests that the breadth and depth of a student's vocabulary will have a direct…

This paper describes an effort to coordinate teaching in two college classes--an Introduction to Sociology class and a Writing II class--to focus on issues of entitlement, such as race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality. The tandem effort was designed to encourage students to explore the subjects more deeply than would have been likely in…