Purpose: The purpose of the report is to provide teachers with tried and proven methodology to improve student writing. Methodology: The practices described are based on enclosed research and first-hand experience garnered while working with inner-city students in both middle and high school in San Antonio, TX. Results: Students that are given the…

The authors--a second grade classroom teacher and a university professor of education--decided to collaborate. Melanie wanted to find out if she could help her students increase their reading and writing comprehension by presenting a sequence of events in an activity (for example, the steps in building a house) and then have the students write the…

Intended to provide teachers with a variety of holistic activities to promote thinking skills and the synthesis of skills while also raising scores on the Texas Educational Assessment of Minimal Skills (TEAMS), this booklet focuses on activities which teachers can implement immediately. The publication contains major sections for each of the…

This ethnographic study of 22 bilingual Mexican American fifth grade students in rural Texas examines which pedogogical techniques reduced students' risk of failure. Classroom instruction was based on Cummins' model of community intervention in which story-telling, dialogue journal writing, and bilingual dialogue between teacher and students…

A new "remedial" or marginal group has emerged in teacher certification, known in Texas as Alternate Certification. In the Texas program, university graduates earn a certificate upon completion of a rigid state-mandated program. A group of 25 graduate students and their teacher set out to examine their notions of literacy, its…