Describes the experiences of new teaching assistants, their orientation, and first days in class. Discusses what they learned about teaching, grading, and their students. (PRA)

Describes the uses of 2 texts by John Holt for teaching grades 6-8, and high school on up. Relates how the texts encourage students to write from their own experiences in vivid detail and discover the value of reading their work aloud to build awareness of their writing "voice." (PA)

Asserts that the most ambitious goal of writing centers is to validate cultural differences while helping students who feel alienated to develop a critical consciousness toward their own place in the university and the wider mainstream culture. Argues that tutors must make special efforts to help students formulate arguments when they question…

Discusses how an art student with mild learning disabilities developed a technique (with her writing center tutor) of rewriting her papers in layers, both vertically and laterally, building her meaning like a painting. (PRA)

Argues for the importance of letting students bring their own literacy networks into the writing center. Describes the benefits of social and cultural interaction between students and their tutors. (PRA)

Discusses writing as a social activity and how collaborative writing enables risk taking and promotes a change in writing attitudes. Provides examples of collaborative writing in the following areas of expository text structure: enumeration, sequence, comparison/contrast, and cause/effect. (MG)

Focuses on a technique called "Early Recollection of Reading and Writing" (ERRW) that provides teachers with the knowledge needed to help unlock and develop a student's potential in reading and writing. Presents the technique's theoretical basis and practical application and illustrates the critical role that this technique can play in…

Presents activities based on a literature selection ("Cross-Country Cat") to provide an example of what can be done using narrative text in a literature-based interdisciplinary program. (MG)

Describes a thinking/prewriting procedure which can be used to help writers clarify their thinking and increase their ability to express their thoughts orally or in writing. Describes a classroom experience where clustering is used to teach students how to write a persuasive piece and discusses other classroom applications of clustering. (MG)

Asserts that learning to write and teaching writing are acts of socialization. Argues that African-American students must aspire to the dominant culture in academia, as well as remain true to their own home culture. Offers strategies for students to employ in the process of exploring the context(s) of culture(s) which govern their language use.…

Argues that nonstandard dialect speakers require instruction vastly different from more traditional methods. Argues against code switching and discusses bidialectic teaching. Asserts that evidence indicates the importance of the absence of competition for facilities, personal contact, and equivalence of positions and functions and that the…

Criticizes teaching formal, impersonal writing and argues for teaching that encourages students to write about what they know and love as they discover who they are and why words matter. (PRA)

Investigates the effect on postsecondary students of the belief that writing ability is a gift. Finds that higher levels of belief in giftedness correlate with higher levels of writing apprehension, lower self-assessments of writing ability, and lower levels of confidence. Suggests that the belief in giftedness may have deleterious effects on…

Discusses methods of effective copy editing that will help students develop as quality writers. (MG)

Describes a research project which studied how spoken and written language interweave and overlap and the teacher's power to promote literacy through talk. Describes the entire process, including the original interest in the subject, the formulation of the research question, the collection of data, and writing and teaching strategies that resulted…