This practicum was aimed at increasing children's abilities to use the computer through word processing activities. Most of the activities involved children working in cooperative groups. Another objective of the practicum was to incorporate the computer into the language arts area. A third objective was to effectively use a single computer beyond…

Eight Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow (ACOT) teachers met with software developers at the Florida Instructional Computing Conference in January 1989. During the session, the panel of ACOT teachers expressed their wants and wishes for educational software and developers responded with their own concerns. The face-to-face communication provided a…

Members of the Polish faculty at the English Institute (Poland) primarily use English as a second language (ESL) techniques to teach writing, with grammar and idiom drills, and little writing beyond the sentence level. An American professor, on the other hand, used a process approach to teach writing by providing specific instructions about…

Intended for teachers beginning to integrate the use of computers into the teaching of writing, this manual reports on a computer and writing skills project for teachers and discusses current theory and research in relation to the classroom experience, practical advice, and specific teaching suggestions of the 10 secondary school teachers involved…

There is need for clarification of what is being called "process writing," for, in many cases, children are inappropriately being trained to follow a professional writing model. A serious problem with the use of the writing process approach is that very little is actually known about the writing process. Writing is supremely complex and…

Fluency writing programs do not meet the needs of poor and minority pupils. If minority people are to effect the change which will allow them to progress, writing programs for them must insist on skills within the context of critical and creative thinking. (PS)

Responds to a call for proof of the effectiveness of the basic writing program at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis, and documents a marked increase in the success rate of basic writers after the program had shifted from a traditional product centered course to a process course. (RS)

Describes the currently advocated "process approach to writing," its advantages over traditional instruction, and the potential of the computer to simplify the process. Three word processing software programs designed to teach writing to elementary school children and a package of programs to teach writing to adults are reviewed. (MBR)

This project was implemented and developed to assist low-achieving tenth grade students' essay writing skills. According to examinations administered during the first part of the 2002 school term, many tenth-grade students were not performing on their grade level in regards to the writing process. The overall goal was to have students be able to…

This report described a program to improve student writing ability. The targeted population consisted of first and third grade students in a middle class community, located in the Midwest. The problem of inadequate writing and the results of the interventions were documented. Analysis of probable cause data revealed that students lacked positive…

Articles in this publication address the writing process, teaching writing, and research on the teaching of writing, and take the form of personal experience or opinion, or explore the work of others who have contributed to the field. Articles in the first issue of this volume include: "What the Children Convey: On Matters of Time, Talk, and…

A practicum program was developed and implemented to improve narrative writing skills, composition skills, and related attitudes among the targeted second grade students. Objectives for the program were for: 75% of the students to increase their narrative writing skills by at least one proficiency level; 75% of the students to increase their…

This paper presents information on using a process approach to teaching thematic instruction in preservice teacher education. Section 1 offers a junior block thematic mini-unit designed to give students intensive practice in a specific content area by designing a thematic topic in the content area and by developing lessons on three or four related…

The challenge of effective writing instruction was investigated by means of a literature review. Writing, as a part of the field of Language Arts, comprising reading, writing, listening and speaking, takes more than teaching spelling, grammar, and other writing conventions for students to develop as writers. The writing process--prewriting,…

Discusses four recent writing books: "Teaching to Write: Theory Into Practice" (Jane B. Hughey and Charlotte Slack); "The Writing Teacher's Handbook" (Jo Phenix); "Scaffolding Young Writers: A Writers' Workshop Approach" (Linda J. Dorn and Carla Soffos); and "Directing the Writing Workshop: An Elementary Teacher's Handbook" (Jean Wallace Gillet…