For the over 25 million students enrolled in America's colleges and universities, postsecondary writing instruction is critical for success in college and beyond. In writing courses, students gain experience analyzing expectations for writing held by different audiences and practice meeting those expectations. This experience contributes…

Darin Stockdill was a secondary school English and social studies teacher in Detroit. His early research with classroom instruction and professional development motivated him to begin doctoral study to explore how schools serving as research sites can become sites for professional development and collaboration. He finds an epistemic perspective on…

The outgoing editorial team of Language Arts reflect on their insights about writing a manuscript for submission to a journal. They focus on patterns in the suggestions of reviewers and in their editorial letters over a five year period of time. They then discuss the range of decisions to consider related to planning and writing a draft,…

Writing behaviors such as pacing, crumpling paper, and cutting and pasting are signs of growth requiring nurturance. (DD)

Presents a public service advertisement by the International Paper Company on how to write a business letter and discusses the ad campaign to improve students' literacy. (DD)

Encourages language arts teachers to give students more opportunities to write in order to develop both their reading and their writing skills. (DD)

Alvina Treut Burrows, Kellogg W. Hunt, Richard Lloyd-Jones, and Charles Read comment on significant developments in writing during the 1970s, hopes for the 1980s, and important references dealing with teaching children to write. (DD)

Encourages teachers to view children's writing positively, to see errors not as deficiencies but as signs of growth. (DD)

The craft of writing is accessible to everyone. To revive it will require that students learn more--read more history and literature and philosophy--and think about problems and the ways human beings have responded to the universal dilemmas of life. (MLW)

Most arguments in support of teacher research have been epistemological and political. They have focused on its potential benefits for improving instruction and for reforming the culture of schooling. Advocates of the teacher-research movement have claimed that it can empower the teacher as a maker of knowledge, encourage collaborative inquiry…

Language arts skills and writing projects can be combined with activities that teach the fundamentals of word processing to improve the language arts curriculum. Suggested lessons cover five writing and editing operations common to most word processing software. (DF)

Considers language growth of secondary school students in terms of their using language to organize real experiences, their awareness of audience, and their ability to manage language for specific purposes and situations. Provides anecdotes of classroom conditions that promoted such student language growth. (RL)

The history of grammar instruction includes two approaches: the handbook approach, which is practiced today, and the textbook approach. The handbook approach focuses on rules for correct writing and is an error-based view, while the textbook approach would treat grammar holistically and interpretively and would systematically explain new concepts…

Suggests cultural journalism--the collection and preservation of the oral history, folklore, and folklife of a locale--as a teaching strategy to encourage students to explore and appreciate their cultural heritage while strengthening their English language arts skills. (HTH)

Defines and explains the elements of the English curriculum (listening, speaking, reading and writing) and shows how, as integrated, they become the basis for the middle school or junior high English curriculum. (Author/JM)