Many teachers today use Learning Management Systems (LMS), several of which are open-source. Specific examples are Claroline and Moodle. However, they are not specifically designed for language learning, and hence not entirely suitable. In this article, I will compare two uses of the Claroline LMS available at Louvain-la-Neuve within the framework…

Merry Perry teaches English courses (both writing and literature) where the majority of the students are white, middle class, and conservative. Perry begins the article by saying that in such an academic environment, her most challenging task is not teaching grammar, punctuation, or editing skills, but challenging these students to think about and…

CraftPlus is an integrated learning package that consists of a K-8 spiraling, core writing curriculum based on explicit Target Skills instruction; professional books; grade-level Curriculum Guides; sixteen workshop and classroom demonstration DVDs; and a CD with student samples and other classroom support materials. The grade-level Curriculum…

CraftPlus[R] is an integrated learning package that consists of a K-8 spiraling, core writing curriculum based on explicit Target Skills instruction; professional books; grade-level Curriculum Guides; sixteen workshop and classroom demonstration DVDs; and a CD with student samples and other classroom support materials. The grade-level Curriculum…

Globally, universities today are attracting students from widely diverse language and cultural backgrounds. However, whilst there are many well-intentioned and supportive institutional endeavours under way, in most cases, it is still apparent that students with certain background characteristics are more successful than others. Disparities that…

In this article, the authors discuss the plight of three very bright students, who have poor or limited English. The authors discuss how promising practices used to develop content-area reading, writing, and thinking can go a long way toward helping English language learners (ELLs) improve their literacy and learning. They discuss five sets of…

The Reference Department at the University of Colorado at Boulder provides a research consultation service to undergraduates enrolled in the mandatory introductory writing course. The Research Center is staffed by graduate students trained in providing reference assistance. Librarians in the Reference Department administered a patron satisfaction…

This paper reports on a study conducted with children belonging to a rarely studied minority group, the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Israel, an extremely religious group that endorses patterns of voluntary segregation. The research population also demonstrates linguistic segregation, as they use only Yiddish for daily communication with…

Involving graduate teaching assistants (GAs) in the development and implementation of rubrics has many benefits. GA involvement increases their sense of ownership of the rubrics and makes it more likely that they will regard the rubrics in a positive light. GAs have insights about the students whose work will be evaluated by the rubrics; and, as…

The majority of undergraduates lack advanced reasoning patterns, which are necessary for significant achievement in college science courses. The purpose of this paper is to review the studies of various instructional practices in introductory college biology courses that claim to develop reasoning. Most of these were non-traditional,…

It is imperative to identify the impact of technological advancements on the quality of student learning. This article reports first-year undergraduate students' perceptions of and experiences with a Web-based writing support program. Two research questions guided the study: (1) What is the nature of first-year students' interactions with…

The 2000 and 2003 international studies of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) among all Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries presented disappointing results for Germany's fifteen-year-old students' reading skills. These studies pointed out two necessities for future reform: to extend the…

This study focuses on ways of organising literacy instruction to raise the skill levels of low-achieving, language minority students. The study involves two teachers and twenty-two students of their students from the Dominican Republic, most of whom had scored well below the 41st percentile in Spanish and English reading and writing tests (the…

The present study used a within-subjects design to examine the effect of the type of written exercise on L2 vocabulary retention. Using input for the meaning and usage of the new words from a specially prepared minidictionary, university intensive English program students (n = 154) practiced target vocabulary in three types of written exercises…

Limited research on ESL learners' use of vocabulary in writing prompted our investigation of vocabulary use in composition by secondary school multi-L1 intermediate ESL learners in Greater Vancouver (n = 48). This study showed that though intermediate learners' use of 1,000-2,000-word-level vocabulary tended to remain constant, their productive…