This paper provided a synopsis of a presentation given at the Texas Association of Literacy Education annual conference in February 2018. During this presentation, several members of the English Language Arts and Reading (ELAR) and Spanish Language Arts and Reading (SLAR) review committees described the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS)…

This paper presents a tentative model of the writing process that has been developed according to the technique of protocol analysis. (A protocol is a description of the activities, ordered in time, in which a subject engages while performing a task.) The model identifies subprocesses of the composing process and their organization; minor…

Prairie-Hills Junior High School, located in a suburban school district 25 miles south of Chicago, has a Chapter 1 replacement language arts model that is remedial focusing on spelling, grammar and writing skills. In the classroom there is lots of interaction, lots of oral reading, discussing, and deciding. Students in the Chapter 1 program follow…

"La dictee" is an effective, time-tested strategy for teaching writing based on the French method of writing from dictation. In addition to writing, "la dictee" incorporates thinking, listening, and speaking skills; relies on literature to provide instructional material; and stresses the interrelationships between reading and…

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how children can consciously examine the composition process and experience a set of problems designed to improve their writing ability. An approach to writing is outlined which is based on the assumption that writing is a skill that can be learned and improved upon. Examined are such topics as the…

Step-by-step guidelines for teaching students the processes involved in conceiving, writing, editing, and binding books are presented in this paper. Following a discussion of the values and aims of such a project, possibilities are noted for making class, small group, or individual books. Guidelines are then provided for helping students become…

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…

This paper reviews and illustrates what the computer offers the field of language arts. Two different approaches to computer assisted reading instruction available at the Naval Training Center in San Diego--the subskills and the holistic approaches--are described. The implications of computer assisted instruction for writing instruction are…

The word "grammar" can be defined in at least four different ways: "intuitive grammar," our intuitive sense of sentence structure; "effective grammar," a command of the syntactic resources of the language; "'good' grammar," the use of socially prestigious grammar; and "formal grammar," the systematic study of the structure of the language. Formal…

The study of language variation has brought linguists closer to some of the problems which concern our schools, namely, the teaching of reading, writing, and speaking. Through variability studies, answers can be found to questions about how to delimit styles, how to effect acceptability in school writing and talking, how to appreciate the dynamics…

The language experience approach to teaching beginning reading uses a child's own language and experiences as the basis for the first reading material or lessons. The approach integrates the language arts skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The steps suggested for a teacher to follow in utilizing this approach are: (1) oral…

Sentence combining can act as a corrective for the large number of language arts lessons and activities that emphasize errors. Based on familiar sentence patterns, sentence combining provides models of effective language use and encourages students to examine and try more expressive and interesting styles of speaking and writing. Sentence…

Through an understanding of learning theories, both those that are cognitive in focus and those which rely on a stimulus-response paradigm, educators may come to a fuller knowledge of what is involved in languaging acts and to a more complete understanding of how to teach necessary communication skills. This paper provides a brief overview of…

This speech acknowledges that competency-based education is prominent today because the general public seeks accountability; it wants results in education. After cautioning about the danger of reducing the humanities to a measurable system, the report points out how behavioral objectives can relate advantageously to the teaching of English. It…

This paper argues that the "back to basics" movement represents a simplistic assessment of the problem it is trying to deal with. It is not necessary for the English curriculum to "return" to narrowly defined basic skills because the English curriculum, in fact, never left them, and that is the real problem. Language…