A study examined how college tutors make sense of tutoring sessions and how their analysis in turn influences their subsequent decisions and actions. Subjects were two tutors who were asked five questions over a period of two sequential tutoring sessions. One tutor realized that her goal was to help students earn better grades, that she managed…

M. A. K. Halliday's continuum of linguistic styles or modes of representing experience employs two classifications of writing styles: (1) synoptic, and (2) dynamic. The synoptic style represents the world as a world of things, of products, of structures. This style is usually associated with carefully planned, formal writing. The chief…

A story told about soliciting comments and criticisms from students during a class one day reveals a number of disturbing techniques used in academic story-telling. Such story telling, which has become increasingly common in academic teaching/writing journals of late, creates the deceptive impression of sincerity and intimacy. In this case, the…

Most teachers would agree that children should undertake a wide range of types of non-fiction writing, but there are many questions about how this aim should be achieved and about how teachers can help children learn about the various structural demands of particular writing forms. "Writing frames" are one strategy which can help…

Writing classes ought to be among the most creative environments imaginable, but sadly, some writing teachers seem to think that their own writing ability, in proximity, is enough to get students started. A good writing teacher must be a constant student of creativity, always searching for new ways to teach, new inspirations, new forms of…

Why does one classroom hum with productivity and enthusiasm and the one next door sag under the weight of the work? To understand the invisible forces within a classroom of busy children, people must look beneath the surface to the relationships that shape behavior and determine daily patterns of teaching and learning. This book focuses on the web…

Policies exist in every aspect of people's lives from the landlord's policy on pets to the government's policy on literacy. As such, policy becomes the ideal place to begin to examine the articulation of distance education because policy inevitably marks the site where different kinds of political discourses and social practices intersect. By…

In this lesson, grade 6-8 students analyze a variety of poets and their poetry by reading and listening to their work. Students then use information gathered from Internet resources to select a favorite poet and perform one of their poems for the class. During the four 30-minute and five 20-minute sessions, students will: analyze a variety of…

The intent of the Washington State Writing Framework is to provide support for the development of writing benchmarks and instructional guidelines for individual school districts. The purpose of the writing framework is: to provide grade by grade overview of the Essential Academic Learning Requirements in writing; to complement the frameworks for…

Two areas of study in the composition field, grammar and style, have fallen below the critical and professional radar, left to the handbook writers, old-school theorists, and secondary educators. Though a few voices remain, their conspicuous absence in the scholarly journals and at professional conferences clearly suggests that the field has moved…

This lesson uses artworks as inspiration for narrative writing: students in grades 6-8 will have the chance to think critically about their interpretations of the events in an image and to write a story that tells background on the image or extends details on what has happened. During two 50-minute lessons, students will: demonstrate knowledge of…

This collection of essays reveals a keen awareness of the degree to which ethics and ethical systems are located in particular instructional contexts. The essays consider the implications of these contexts from a variety of perspectives, both theoretical and pedagogical. In the collection's first part, Ethics and the Composition Classroom, are the…

New lines of understanding and self expression are two facets of drama which are useful in teaching reading and writing. Techniques of creative drama offer an engaging way of enforcing writing process concepts. Drama can be a vehicle to get listening, speaking, reading and writing to interact in a creative and holistic way. Curricular objectives…

For Peter Elbow, a writing classroom should be an opportunity for students to tell their stories to a community in which everyone is safe to take risks, and all support each other in the development of their expressive skills. To be "other," however, is always a scary thing. The lesbian, gay, or bisexual writing student is usually seen as having a…

This book describes "Writing Pictures," a daily developmental writing exercise in which students visualize a moment in their life of their own choosing, sketch it quickly, and write four guided sentences in paragraph format about it. Beginning with level one, it takes students through the basic format, and, with time, students progress upward…