Vocabulary and spelling are two of the most important skills to achieve success in an academic setting. This review of 15 articles highlights classroom interventions that successfully enhanced vocabulary and spelling skills among ESL, English Only, English language learners (ELL), and learning disabled (LD) students. The strategies that enhanced…

Writing is a developmental and flexible process. Using a prescribed process for acts of writing during instruction does not take into account individual differences of writers and generates writing instruction that is narrow, rigid, and inflexible. Preservice teachers receive limited training with theory and pedagogy for writing, which potentially…

The practical, "how-to" companion to the more theoretically-oriented webtext in the Topoi section, Podcasting in a Writing Class? similarly provides a hypertext and series of podcasts--this time focusing on the construction and implementation of podcast assignments for writing courses. (Contains 7 tables.)

Learners occasionally complain that they lack ideas when sitting down to write a composition. Teachers complain that they do not want to spend half the class time telling students what to write. There is an answer. Teachers brainstorm words connected with the topic in class before setting the composition for homework. The question remains: how to…

Writing effectively in a second language can be one of the most challenging tasks second language learners must undertake and master. English teachers are in a good position to implement the types of supports that can move ELLs toward success in academic writing by providing exposure to and practice with different genres of academic writing,…

The IMSCI model for teaching writing scaffolds the instruction so that students understand the features of a genre, see the teacher model writing a text in the target genre, participate in the creation of a text in the genre (through shared or collaborative writing), and independently write a text in the genre. This model is based on social…

In his keynote address at the "New York Times" Schools for Tomorrow 2011 Fall Conference, Dr. Larry Summers (2011) suggested that technology implementations have an unusual growth pattern. New technology innovations usually require more time to "catch on" than one might expect, but once they catch on, their use spreads more quickly than anyone can…

In contrast to the product approach to writing, which is based on studying and replicating textual models, the process approach involves multiple and repeated steps that compel the writer to closely consider the topic, language, purpose for writing, and social reality of an audience. In addition to discussing the benefits of the process approach…

The purpose of this essay is to instruct teachers how to write a letter of recommendation for their students. It includes when to say no, what the student needs to provide the teacher and how to write a strong letter. I am a teacher with sixteen years experience and therefore have written many letters for students. This instructional essay will…

This literature review serves to inform the reader on current literature on Contrastive Rhetoric (CR), with specific reference to teaching writing to Japanese students of English. It will examine the historical developments of CR and its present significance before then looking at possible reasons for unique characteristics of Japanese L2 writers…

Writing for publication is a skill latent activity that is developed in gradients and honed with practice. For the past twenty-five years the author has teamed with colleagues (most frequently, Ken Henson) in presenting workshops about professional writing at a variety of conferences for such organizations as the Association of Teacher Educators…

From the standpoint of a journal editor and researcher, this commentary critically reflects on some of the primary notions addressed in the 4 featured articles of the special section, discussing areas of agreement and divergence. As a way of further exploring these ethical and professional concerns, the contentious issue of using school children…

Writing in its many forms is the signature means of communication in the 21st century. This simple truth heightens the urgency to help all of our nation's students become strong writers and effective communicators. The National Writing Project (NWP) pursues this goal by focusing the knowledge, expertise, and leadership of the nation's educators on…

Because revising can feel overwhelming even for competent writers, the author designed the Focused Question Card (FQC) strategy to ease students through a critically important aspect of the writing process--revision. The strategy is ideal for writing intended as thoughtful reflection of thinking over time and can be used with students from fourth…

People write because they have something to say, when they have a rich experience to share, or when they have ideas to clarify and record. Effective writers learn how to communicate. This applies to adults as well as children. Teaching writing is about building on the language skills that children bring with them to school. Pupils need a rich…