Digital media is a great multidimensional communication tool because it combines images, text, sound, and animation. For students to be effective communicators in the 21st century, they need to be sophisticated in expressing ideas with multiple communication technologies, not just the written word. Digital storytelling allows students to use multimedia tools in a sophisticated fashion while capturing the joy of creating and sharing their stories. In this article, the author offers tips on how...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Story Telling, Multimedia Materials, Teaching Methods, Educational Technology,...
Plagiarism is an ugly word. Copying someone else's work and attempting to claim credit for one's self is an act that involves a number of ethical failings--theft, laziness, coveting, and lying among others. Many educators blame the Internet for what they perceive as the rise of plagiarism. Although the Internet certainly enables more efficient plagiarism, blaming it for widespread copying is akin to blaming a bank robbery on the presence of cash in the building. This article presents several...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Plagiarism, Internet, Prevention, Ethics, Student Behavior, Teaching Methods, Higher...
Throughout the decades, writing has been recognized as a process that helps learners to think more deeply about ideas and information they encounter through reading, listening, viewing, and physically experiencing the world around them. "Discovery writing," the type of writing over which students have some control of the format, topic, purpose, and audience, leads to greater understanding of concepts across the middle school curriculum. "Staccato writing," the quick, short...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Writing Across the Curriculum, Childrens Writing, Student Attitudes, Content Area...
This article reviews research examining technical features of curriculum-based measurement (CBM) in written expression. Twenty-eight technical reports and published articles are included in this review. Studies examining the development and technical adequacy of measures of written expression are summarized, beginning with research conducted at the Institute for Research on Learning Disabilities at the University of Minnesota and followed by extensions of this work. Differences in technical...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Scoring, Learning Disabilities, Curriculum Based Assessment, Writing Instruction,...
In this description of a learning community for "at-risk" and basic writing students at the University of Wyoming, I outline the reasons our students resist academic writing prior to their entry into college--reasons largely unrelated to typical perceptions of at-risk students as "lazy" or intellectually less capable. For students who come from family or community cultures that are far removed from academic discourses and hierarchies, accepting a new form of writing--and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, High Risk Students, Critical Reading, Critical Thinking, Writing Processes,...
Protocol analyses in research on writing reveal that throughout the composing process talented writers direct a tremendous amount of mental effort toward integrating and pursuing complex goals such as developing and following overriding themes, elaborating main points, clarifying content for a particular audience, and integrating genre features. Novice writers, on the other hand, regardless of age or knowledge base, have a much more local writing process in which they focus primarily on their...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Cues, Talent, Writing Processes, Protocol Analysis, Writing Instruction, Audience...
The risk posed by explicit instruction in composition is that the reduction of writing to stock moves and effective devices may diminish the writer's agency and guarantee reproduction of the teacher's. The advantage of explicit instruction is power: overt and recursive attention to selected strategies can help students imagine the public agency the instruction itself may temporarily suspend. This study argues that growth in student writing can follow from replacing problem-solving assignments...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Assignments, Rhetoric, Rhetorical Criticism, Revision (Written Composition), Ethics,...
Arizona State University's basic writing "Stretch Program" has now been in existence for more than ten years. Statistical data for nearly 8,000 "Stretch Program" students continues to indicate that the program helps a range of at-risk students succeed. This is true, also, for students from under-represented groups, who comprise roughly 40% of "Stretch Program" students. "Stretch" has been replicated at other colleges and universities, but as with any...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Basic Writing, High Risk Students, Disproportionate Representation, Student Needs,...
To commemorate the 30th anniversary of the publication of Mina Shaughnessy's groundbreaking book, "Errors and Expectations," a roundtable discussion was held at the March 2007 Conference on College Composition and Communication in New York City. This article, based on the earlier discussion, examines the question of CUNY's multiple identities within the legacy of Shaughnessy, who coined the term "basic writing" and founded the Journal of Basic Writing in 1975. Composition...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Basic Writing, Writing (Composition), Democracy, Open Enrollment, Urban Schools,...
While evidence shows that grammar study focused on identification, description, and definition (IDD) fails to enhance writing performance, the grammar most students study remains focused on the IDD tradition. We taught a functional grammar that featured what words do in sentences, rather than what words are called and how they are defined, to two sections of tenth graders while another teacher taught grammar identification-definition-description. Students completed a grammar test and submitted...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Sentences, Grammar, Identification, Writing Instruction, Grade 10, Verbs, Writing...
The role of technology in education is ever increasing. This article looks at students with disabilities and the problem of writing independently. Speech recognition technology offers an option, or solution, for students who have physical and/or learning disabilities and for students who cannot access and use computer keyboards or switches. Classroom use of the speech recognition software program packaged within most personal computers is suggested.
Topics: ERIC Archive, Learning Disabilities, Attitudes toward Disabilities, Computer Software, Computers,...
In recent years effective instruction in reading for learners with physical and educational disabilities has received great attention in the schools. However, instruction in the corollary skill of writing has received considerably less emphasis. This review paper notes that through the use of assistive technology, students with a variety of physical and educational disabilities can learn to effectively (a) plan and organize their writing, (b) draft and transcribe their work, and (c) edit and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Technology, Writing Skills, Assistive Technology, Expository Writing,...
Since instruction in writing theory and pedagogy for preservice teachers is often limited, it is essential that teacher educators provide learning experiences that are supported by research in effective teacher preparation and make maximum impact in the time available. One of the experiences that has been identified as holding promise for effective teacher preparation is having candidates examine their personal theories and beliefs in relation to theory and practice. Personal histories or...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Preservice Teachers, Literacy Education, Writing Workshops, Autobiographies, Student...
This article reports on a sample of 26 middle-class Chinese immigrant parents' perspectives on their children's reading, writing, mathematics learning, and homework, and on the parents' involvement in and communication with mainstream American schools. Findings suggested both consistencies and discrepancies between their beliefs and practices. Areas of discrepancies include their reported involvement in their children's reading and their attitudes toward homework. However, the parents were more...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Homework, Mathematics Education, Familiarity, Parent School Relationship, Literacy,...
Southeastern Massachusetts is home to six public institutions of higher education. In 2003, at the invitation of Bridgewater President Dana Mohler-Faria, five of them joined together to form a regional collaborative called CONNECT. (The original members were Bridgewater State College, Bristol, Cape Cod and Massasoit community colleges, and the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. The sixth, Massachusetts Maritime Academy, joined in 2007.) The collaborative's goals are to improve the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Higher Education, Writing (Composition), State Colleges, Cooperation, Human...
Not so many years ago, comic books in school were considered the enemy. Students caught sneaking comics between the pages of bulky--and less engaging--textbooks were likely sent to the principal. Today, however, comics, including classics such as "Superman" but also their generally more complex, nuanced cousins, graphic novels, are not only regarded as educational tools by savvy teachers, they are also taken seriously as literature and an art form in their own right. Comic books can...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Textbooks, Cartoons, Novels, Traditional Grammar, Visual Literacy, Writing...
With persistence and an enthusiastic approach, teachers can lead their students to discover writing as a creative outlet and a communication tool, a way of transmitting the scenes inside their heads to the world at large. Written language, with all its conventions and complexities, of course takes years to master. But it must have a beginning. There is a place for every child to start a journey on a river of words. All they need is someone to recognize their wonderful ideas and inspire them to...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Written Language, Creative Thinking, Writing Instruction, Mentors, Student...
This article presents some of the best, most surprising and funniest advice from the longest running teacher magazine, "Instructor." Included are snippets from issues of "Instructor" published between 1891 and 2005 such as: "5 Tips from Our First Issue" (1891); Advice for "Teacher Ladies" (1894, 1941); Teacher-to-Teacher (Idea Swapping) (1905, 1915, 1966); What (Not) to Wear (1915, 1926, 1956, 1941, 1976); Tips on Trips (1936); and Writing Prompts (1916)....
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Development, Teaching Methods, Women Faculty, Teacher Collaboration,...
This article focuses on an attempt by a teacher education institute to empower non-English majors to teach English at the primary level, drawing on a preservice English-language teacher education program for undergraduates at the National Institute of Education, Singapore. The course, which has been running for three years, aims to develop student teachers' skills in analyzing grammatical features in primary-level writing, based on a three-step approach designed by the author specifically for...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Student Teachers, Preservice Teacher Education, Foreign Countries, English (Second...
This article reviews theories and research on revision in second-language (L2) writing. It examines how and what L2 writers revise, compares the revision practices of skilled and unskilled L2 writers, and suggests instructional practices to help learners improve their L2 revision skills.
Topics: ERIC Archive, Revision (Written Composition), Teaching Methods, Second Language Instruction, Second...
Studies investigating cultural influences on second-language writing have been mainly product-oriented. Moreover, research on writing processes has mostly focused on the strategies of writing and learning to write. Writing processes where we can see the evolution of the writer's identity and beliefs have been less adequately addressed. Therefore, this article focuses on the dynamic relationship of culture, identity, and beliefs with regard to the writing process (the micro-process) and the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Writing Processes, Learning Processes, Cultural Influences, English (Second...
This article describes the implementation of one element of an adapted language arts curriculum for Deaf students in a bilingual (American Sign Language and English) educational setting. It examines the implementation of writing workshops in three elementary classrooms in a school for Deaf students. The typical steps of preparing/planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing were carried out by all students in both languages to create stories and produce final products in both...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Deafness, Writing Workshops, English, American Sign Language, Teaching Methods,...
The goal of the middle school organization is to create a learning environment that matches the developmental abilities and needs of young adolescents. This research attempts to operationalize that goal by integrating reading and English classes in large urban middle schools. The Student Team Reading and Writing (STRW) program reconfigured instruction to actively engage students in learning. The program used cooperative learning processes to take advantage of the cognitive, social, and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Reading Comprehension, Cooperative Learning, Learning Processes, Teaching Methods,...
To investigate the generalizability of the results of single-case experimental studies, evaluating the effect of one or more treatments, in applied research various simultaneous and sequential replication strategies are used. We discuss one approach for aggregating the results for single-cases: the use of hierarchical linear models. This approach has the potential to allow making improved inferences about the effects for the individual cases, but also to estimate and test the overall effect,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Multivariate Analysis, Disabilities, Experiments, Regression (Statistics), Writing...
This 10 week longitudinal evaluation study evaluated a brain-based learning curriculum proposed by Smilkstein (2003) by comparing student performance in a traditional basic writing curriculum with NHLP-oriented basic writing curriculum. The study included two classes each of experimental and traditional methods. Results of the data, gathered by means of questionnaires and in-class writing, indicate the experimental classes expressed more positive comments than the traditional classes, and, on...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Basic Writing, Brain, Teaching Methods, Scientific Research, Theory Practice...
Reflective practice, a popular item in current second-language teacher education and development programs, can help bridge the gap between a teacher's beliefs and classroom practices. This article outlines a case study, highlighting how one teacher of academic writing initiated the exploration of her teaching and how she used classroom observations and oral recall to help her reflect on her practice. Specifically, the exploration sought to outline the teacher's beliefs about, and classroom...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Reflective Teaching, English (Second Language), Writing Teachers, Case Studies,...
This study looks at a specific application of Ainsworth's conceptual framework for learning with multiple representations in the context of using multiple sequential graphic organizers that are student-generated for a process-writing task. Process writing refers to writing that consists of multiple drafts. It may be a process of re-writing without feedback or re-writing based on feedback where the teacher or peers will provide feedback on the original draft and then the students will revise...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Feedback (Response), Concept Mapping, Writing Ability, Cognitive Processes, Process...
This study investigated the effects of the Direct Instruction writing program, "Expressive Writing" (Engelmann & Silbert, 1983), for high school students with learning disabilities (LD). The study used a multiple probe design across participants and results indicate the effectiveness of "Expressive Writing" in improving the writing skills of high students with LD who participated. The study (a) examined the number of correct word sequences written during the first three...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Standard Spoken Usage, Spelling, Learning Disabilities, Expressive Language, Writing...
This article describes an unconventional method to teach un-contracted braille reading and writing skills to students who are blind and have additional disabilities. It includes a keyboarding curriculum that focuses on the whole language approach to literacy. A special feature is the keyboard that is adapted with braille symbols. Un-contracted braille reading is not taught, but is acquired simultaneously while embedding essential concept skills.
Topics: ERIC Archive, Braille, Whole Language Approach, Functional Literacy, Writing Skills, Keyboarding...
This paper presents some considerations on teaching L2 rhetorical conventions in university-level multilingual classrooms. It is claimed that if L2 students need to acquire versatile writing skills in L2 to be given a voice in the discourse milieu of the receiving society, they should also have the right to preserve their L1 cultural perspective. Drawing from Mao's notion of "creative heteroglossia" (2004), emphasis is placed on the positive transfer of knowledge and skills from L1 to...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Cultural Background, Biculturalism, Cultural Literacy, Multilingualism, Transfer of...
Two major obstacles to using problem-based learning methods with writing in elementary school classrooms are the time it takes to design the learning environment and the time required for students to interact at their own pace with ill-structured problems used to spur student writing. This study examined whether game elements could be used along with Problem Based Learning (PBL) in a digital learning environment to improve student writing. Results from this study included statistically...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Problem Based Learning, Educational Environment, Teaching Methods, Elementary School...
The purpose of this empirical study was to determine if there was a measurable difference on the content and organization portion of a narrative writing test by a sample of students taught by teachers who received professional development (PD) as compared to students whose teachers did not have this training and thus their students did not receive this level of instruction. The PD trained teachers how to provide instruction to students in using the criteria contained within the New Jersey...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Teacher Behavior, Writing Achievement, Writing Tests, Writing (Composition), Teacher...
Stasis theory is a powerful tool for rhetorical analysis, recently under fresh consideration by rhetorical theorists (e.g. Gross) and scholars who identify its utility in the writing classroom (e.g. Carroll). In this study, the author applies stasis theory to a paleontological argument involving a controversial fossil, "Protoavis texensis." Discourse related to the controversy is examined under the lens of the "staseis," and the application of stasis theory to visual...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Rhetoric, Rhetorical Criticism, Paleontology, Writing Instruction, Rhetorical Theory,...
The environment is a ready-made subject in writing classrooms, and teachers at all levels are encouraging students to write about nature and environmental issues. Environmental issues provide a equitable meeting place for students from a variety of different backgrounds, interests, and ideologies. There are also many pedagogical advantages to bringing environmental issues into the writing classroom, as proposed by ecocomposition theory. The main advantage is that ecological issues offer social...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Writing (Composition), Environmental Education, Learning Strategies, Ideology,...
In this article, the author argues that the computer/artificial intelligence (AI) metaphor dominates current thinking about the operation of the mind among educators and the public, and that the metaphor limits one's understanding of how the mind really works to detrimental effect. In particular, the author posits that ideas about literacy are conceptually determined by this metaphor and that the result is an expectation that students should process literacy in the same way that a computer...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Figurative Language, Standardized Tests, Computers, Artificial Intelligence,...
This article examines in detail the Ohio WINS (Writing Institute Network for Success), a program whose goal is to provide continuing education for teachers. The aim of the program is to use up-to-date research to help teachers improve students' critical thinking and to better prepare them for both the rigorous Ohio Graduation Tests (OGTs) and college. With the Ohio Academic Standards at the heart of its inception, the summer program immerses the teachers in current writing and educational...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Summer Programs, Educational Theories, Continuing Education, Academic Standards,...
The early stratification among what one might now label the primary, secondary, and postsecondary levels of education persists. There are pertinent developmental and cognitive considerations that account for many of the distinctions among what is taught at each level. Yet within the discipline of English, always tentatively, provisionally defined by those who teach it, the relationship between college English and high school English has been marked by disputation and dismay. Those in college...
Topics: ERIC Archive, High Schools, College English, Writing (Composition), Secondary School Teachers,...
Working with first-year students at Purdue University, the author, a composition instructor, joined efforts with librarian Alexius Smith-Macklin to explore the efficacy of a collaborative approach to freshman writing instruction at the university level. Combining expertise from the Purdue programs of English education, theory and cultural studies, rhetoric and composition, and library studies, they initiated an action research investigation of curriculum designed to improve the research skills...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Undergraduate Students, Student Research, Writing (Composition), Action Research,...
In the summer of 2002, the authors' university offered an online course, titled "Swims with Words: Reading, Writing, and Teaching Creative Nonfiction" (referred to as "CNF"). "Swims with Words" is a seven-week online writing course that immersed students in reading and writing nonfiction texts so they could explore nonfiction's value and its relation to other genres, and investigate its potential for their own writing and teaching. This was a new approach to...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Online Courses, Writing Instruction, Creative Writing, Nonfiction, Teaching Methods,...
This roundtable explores several different composition-related questions and topics. It raises two questions: (1) What theory from composition studies do you believe is important to include in classes for future elementary and/or secondary writing teachers? (2) What are the knowledge, background, traits, and abilities of a successful writing teacher and/or writing methods faculty member. To answer these questions, each co-author created his/her own responses, and then a combined works cited...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Writing Teachers, Faculty, Writing Instruction, English Instruction, Writing...
Each of the four core composition units discussed in this paper presents its own set of challenges to both student and teacher. As writing teachers at mid-sized state universities, the authors offer four pedagogical approaches to exploring student identity through composition, literature, and rhetoric. One of the main goals is to allow new students to explore issues of personal and social identity formation; at the same time respect the mandate to provide basic communication tools and skills...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Writing (Composition), Rhetoric, State Universities, Self Concept, Writing Teachers,...
In this article, we provide a theoretical framework for understanding how written peer critique can be used successfully to develop authority in students' writing in the disciplines. We suggest that having students respond to their peers in writing rather than orally and positioning students to write their critiques from a strong knowledge base are key elements in making peer critique valuable to the responder. We describe the use of written peer critique in a second-year communications studies...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Writing Instruction, Student Writing Models, Academic Discourse, Schneider, Barbara,...
Concentrating on the unintentionally dominant group, the author considers how Walter Ong demonstrates that novice writers have a narrow concept of audience that is really a narcissistic fiction projected as an ideal reader (1975). Given this, writing instructors can work to broaden their students' sense of audience to consider readers who are not exactly like themselves. This essay, while not a success story of student chat room exchange, presents how the author encouraged students' rhetorical...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Computer Mediated Communication, Rhetoric, Audiences, Reader Response, Social Bias,...
This article talks about situated writing lessons and describes how to use this strategy in disciplinary context. The concept of the situated writing lesson is similar to the concept of "strategy lessons" advocated by Nancie Atwell and other whole language teachers who discovered a need for short, context-specific teaching of language conventions. Unlike strategy lessons, though, the situated writing lesson describes examples and counter-examples to help novice writers better...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Writing Instruction, Writing Strategies, Writing Workshops, College Faculty, Higher...
For the last few years, the author has been implementing a pedagogy that infuses musical composition--specifically the recording of electronic music--into his first-year composition courses. The author and his students have been quite surprised by the theoretical and practical connections that exist between the production of popular electronic music and the production of academic writing. Certainly, students learn a great deal from this interdisciplinary endeavor; even though they have no prior...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Electronics, Music, Musical Composition, Writing Instruction, Interdisciplinary...
Young people have the potential to be creative and skilled storytellers, actors, and writers. They also can become profoundly insightful about the way diversity affects themselves and others, as well as actively challenge bias. "Act It Out" encourages these potentials in students. Augmenting the writing program that many teachers already use, it enables students to write about, act out and learn from experiences of discrimination in their lives. By collectively acting out and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Student Attitudes, Grade 3, Writing (Composition), Student Diversity, Dramatics,...
Based on interview data, this study investigated four Chinese graduate students' experiences with writing a literature review at a medium-sized university in Canada. These students, from four subject areas, held varying perceptions of a literature review, but all saw the writing challenges that they encountered mainly as linguistic problems, especially regarding vocabulary and accuracy at the sentence level. The strategies that they used in the composing process were diverse, with each...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Graduate Students, Foreign Countries, Educational Environment, Interviews, Literature...
In a College Composition II (ENG 112) class offered during the spring of 2005 at John Tyler Community College (JTCC), the author implemented an information-literacy curriculum whose salient features include: students collaborated on a semester-long, original-research project. The Metro Richmond Supermarket Price Comparison provided a focused, achievable project relevant to JTCC's service area. The ENG 112 supermarket research project would investigate a topic that had plenty of background...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Research Projects, Higher Education, College English, Writing (Composition),...
In the fall of 2005 the principal and teachers at Knickerbacker Middle School (KMS) were worried. KMS was a "School in Good Standing" but had not hit federal or state benchmarks because of low subgroup scores on the English Language Arts (ELA) test--especially scores received by economically disadvantaged students, about half of this urban school's student population. KMS would be identified as a "School in Need of Improvement" in 2006 if the ELA scores did not improve. This...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Urban Schools, Economically Disadvantaged, Middle Schools, Middle School Students,...
This paper reports on a pilot study that involved introducing writing tutors or writing fellows into a compulsory, third-year economics course with the intent of incorporating both writing across the curriculum and writing intensive elements. The connections and interrelationships between writing and writing intensive courses are set out briefly first of all; the connections among writing, critical thinking, and knowledge acquisition are emphasised. The course and the writing tutor system are...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Writing Across the Curriculum, Tutors, Economics Education, Writing Instruction,...