Your students are sitting at their desks, using a checklist to revise their writing. You see that some are consistently checking off the same areas they always do as "needing improvement" and that others are simply marking off a skill as "mastered," scarcely glancing at the piece of writing in front of them. The authors suggest…

Expectations for high-level academic writing, especially in the Common Core era, have never been higher. Middle school and high school students are being asked to do close readings of complex texts and then respond in writing using academic discourse. This is a challenging task for many students, but perhaps none as great as for English language…

"Writing is a core skill for living, not just for school," writes high school English teacher Penny Kittle. Although it's important to teach students the conventions of grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure, teachers don't need to approach this task "like scolds, red pens in hand, stamping out sin, and punishing…

Casey Cuny was frustrated with the lack of depth in his high school English students' writing. He'd heard about Socratic seminars but was reluctant to try them until he saw them in action. He decided to conduct Socratic seminars with his students centered on the question, What is the value of life? In past years, student papers on this…

It makes sense that an emphasis on new ways of reading and writing fits easily within the Common Core umbrella. After all, a primary thrust of the new standards is college and career readiness. How can young people be prepared to thrive in today's society--in which people are connected 24 hours a day by media and coworkers may well live in…

The writing teacher's foremost job is leading students to see the valuable ideas they have to express. Writing is a way to share those ideas with the world rather than a way to be wrong, Anderson asserts. Teachers and parents too often focus on errors in student writing. This focus gives students the impression that writing well is about avoiding…

Exiled to Mussoorie, India, Tibetan students participating in a poetry workshop wrote persuasively about collective rage, communal loss and gratitude, and the shared wish to return home. The author, an American English professor, helped them express their individuality (a non-Tibetan value) while preserving their cultural identity. (MLH)

In a second-chance program to develop reading competence, secondary students in an Alberta district continue in core academic subjects while enrolling in a 90-minute curriculum based on the "Picture Work Inductive Model." They listen to readings by teachers, write to prompts, and read independently. (Contains 14 references.) (MLH)

A fourth-grade teacher describes educational uses of a loft he constructed in his classroom. After drafting a constitution, the children brainstormed possible uses as reading/writing nook, small-group work area, and time-out space. The loft also serves as a minilibrary, private conference room, test makeup room, and staging area. (MLH)

To gain insight into her students' natural styles of writing, one middle school teacher attempted to discover which students wrote notes, which developmental styles were being practiced, and how writing teachers could help. Capitalizing on students' notes to improve writing can succeed if teachers officially ban note writing and practice…

Arguing that children need access to word processing to reap the same benefits as adult writers, a fourth-grade teacher convinced her administration to provide one computer per child during their writing workshop periods. Having portable word processors liberated student writers by making the mechanical aspects of writing easier. Students could…

Describes seven instructional strategies to improve student reading and writing across the curriculum at Herbert Hoover High School in San Diego, California. Strategies include read alouds, "K-W-L charts," graphic organizers, vocabulary instruction, writing to learn, structured note-taking, and reciprocal teaching. (Contains 11…

A focus on people--whether community members, students, historical figures, or fictional characters--and their motivations brings excitement to learning. A community's experts on everything from jazz music and Chinese tapestries to building construction can help students move inside history and other subjects. (MLH)

Image within the Writing Process is an arts-based literacy program that integrates children's visual imagery at every stage of the writing process. Using various simple art materials and methods, young authors/illustrators have access to visual, kinesthetic, and verbal thinking modes. The process benefits both verbal thinkers and those with…

To raise the literacy achievement of secondary school students, some schools train their whole faculties in general reading and writing strategies to implement across the curriculum. Content-area teachers often resist this approach, however, fearing that setting aside time for literacy instruction will dilute the academic rigor of mathematics,…