Learning how to formulate, comprehend, and evaluate arguments is an essential part of helping students develop the ability to make better, more reasonable judgments. The Common Core identified argumentation as a fundamental life skill that is broadly important for the literate person. According to the authors, having students engage in an inquiry…

In preparation for her school's celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, Elizabeth Brown developed an integrated language arts and social studies one-week unit of study on the civil rights movement, where she reinforced reading, writing, and speaking skills. The overarching goals for the five-day lesson on Dr. King's "I Have a…

In Essex County, New Jersey, whose county seat is Newark, students have the option of attending one of four vocational high schools. The Essex County Vocational School District draws students from the county seeking instruction in a multitude of career and technical areas. North 13th Street Technical School is one of the four vocational options.…

This article describes the process used by one high school teacher to incorporate writing into her classroom. The teacher made several modifications to her curriculum to provide her students with opportunities to engage in online research, and produce text for real-world audiences. The students' comments indicate that although they were initially…

New Jersey is in the process of transitioning to new English language arts and mathematics standards that will better prepare students to be successful in college and their careers. Time, effort, and resources must be dedicated to effective implementation in order to realize the promise of these new common core state standards. This paper captures…

The authors have discovered that working in a writing center setting within the classroom provides pre-service teachers with an opportunity not only to work with student writers one-on-one but also to experience a model of best practice in teaching writing. In this article, the authors describe a program, focusing on the partnership they have…

The staff of the Individualized Language Arts Diagnosis, Prescription, and Evaluation Project, a funded ESEA Title III program, has developed methods based on a diagnostic-teaching framework designed to analyze students' writing skills for grades 1-12. The program structure also provides teachers with methodology for developing and reinforcing…

Describes the work of Storytelling Arts Inc, a nonprofit group that sends storytellers into New Jersey schools to spin age-old yarns and encourage young children and their teachers to speak their mind. The nonprofit's main goal is to inspire low income children to master the language arts. Teachers note that storytelling helps students with their…

High school graduation exams are in place in nearly half the states, and more than half the nation's high school students have to pass them to earn a diploma. After a detailed analysis of the mathematics and English language arts exams in Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ohio and Texas, Achieve reached three conclusions: (1) Tests are…

This report describes the Prescriptions for Better Writing Program, a 9-week writing skills curriculum, suitable for seventh to ninth grade levels, developed by teachers in New Jersey's Lower Camden County's Regional High School District No. 1. The program was designed for two purposes: to remediate to ninth grade levels and designed for two…

This catalogue describes thirty-two education programs developed by the State Department of Education of New Jersey. They include programs that improve basic skills in mathematics and language arts, offer career education and guidance, enrich curricula, enhance classrooms, school, and district administration, and are designed to raise the levels…

This report describes the PlayWrite Program, which was developed in the Montville Township School District, New Jersey, to encourage children in grades K-6 to write. The primary objectives of the program are to increase students' motivation to write; to improve their writing skills through the process of brainstorming, composing, revising, and…

Describes the Weehawken, New Jersey, individualized language arts program to develop better ways of teaching writing and composition through diagnosing student writing needs, using prescriptive teaching techniques, and evaluating student progress. Validated by the Office of Education, the program has spread across the country. (MF)

This report presents a summary of areas of progress, as documented in "New Jersey Kids Count 2006," and areas that must be addressed as the state moves into the second half of the first decade of the new century. Gained ground include: (1) The number of children immunized by age 2, screened for lead poisoning, dental problems and other…

This document presents profiles of 21 exemplary New Jersey elementary and secondary school teacher-developed programs and their outcomes. Thirty-nine teachers received two-year grants that allowed them to evaluate their practices and to prepare materials for dissemination. The programs are in the following subject areas: art; career education;…