A study examined patterns of English usage in 52 Japanese university freshmen's written compositions, particularly in the use of the subordinating conjunction "because." It was found that students often fragmented sentences when "because" was involved, or used a comma to separate a trailing dependent "because" clause…

Taking a consistent student- and response-centered approach to literature-based teaching in culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms, this book is designed for use as a main text in undergraduate and graduate language arts methods courses. The book is firmly grounded in current social constructivist learning theory combined with a…

Developed to increase student ability to communicate effectively in a growing range of situations, this kindergarten through grade eight writing and speaking program is based on clusters of instructional and performance objectives for each grade level. The guide begins with a discussion of the goals of education, a point of view about language…

This paper analyzes short stories written in English and French by French immersion pupils at the Grade 3 level. Their English writing skills are compared to those of Grade 3 pupils in a regular English program. Aspects of their writing skills which are examined include vocabulary skills, technical skills (punctuation, capitalization and…

Supplementary to "NAEP 1996 Trends in Academic Progress," this report describes two aspects of writing for which change has been measured since 1984: writing fluency as determined by holistic scoring; and mastery of the conventions of written English as determined by mechanics scoring. The introduction discusses the layout and means of…

This paper discusses the development of a criterion-referenced assessment measure for both written English and American Sign Language (ASL) that can be used with deaf elementary through secondary students. The measure is presented as well as the results of a trial use. Developed by the Cleary School for the Deaf, the Cleary Language Assessment…

This curriculum is designed for adult learners in the workplace whose reading and writing skills have never been developed as much as desired or whose skills have atrophied. The overall goal is to bring these learners to a level approximately equivalent to the end of 12th grade. This volume contains four of the nine modules in the curriculum; a…

Beginning with the 1985-86 school year, the Texas Educational Assessment of Minimum Skills (TEAMS) tests have been based on the objectives provided in this publication for teachers and test development specialists. The writing skills objectives for grade 7 require: (1) knowledge of standard capitalization; (2) knowledge of standard punctuation;…

The purpose of this book is to deal with pressing problems encountered by secondary teachers in teaching reading, through synthesizing pertinent research and suggesting classroom applications. Its 16 chapters deal with the following topics: the teen-aged nonreader; complicating factors in the teaching of reading; a school-wide attack on reading…

This investigation compares and analyses the experiences and subjective cognitive workload of students undertaking a lesson on an aspect of micro-level writing skills in a web-based and paperbased version. Both versions of the lesson were based on the principles of interactive learning, specifically on a modified version of Chou's (2003) model.…

The Texas Educational Assessment of Minimum Skills (TEAMS) was developed by the Texas Education Agency (TEA), in response to Texas House Bill 72 (1984), which mandated a new basic skills assessment program for mathematics, reading, and writing at grades 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11. This document is one in a series of Instructional Strategies Guides…

A TEACHER'S EXPERIENCE IN GUIDING A GROUP OF 40 FOURTH-GRADERS IN WRITING A BOOK IS REPORTED, AND THE BOOK IS INCLUDED. PROVIDED ARE DESCRIPTIONS OF--(1) THE STEP-BY-STEP PROCESS OF WRITING EACH CHAPTER OF THE BOOK, (2) THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE STUDENTS'"OWN ENGLISH BOOK"--RULES FOR USAGE, SPELLING, PUNCTUATION, AND CAPITALIZATION,…

The major objective of this elementary school consumer education unit is to help students learn how to write different kinds of sentences. Another objective is to help students understand contemporary communities, by introducing a hypothetical community called Red Rock. Topics about which students are directed to write sentences include…

A teacher's experience in guiding a group of 40 fourth-graders in writing a book is reported, and the book is included. Provided are descriptions of--(1) the step-by-step process of writing each chapter of the book, (2) the development of the students'"own English book"--rules for usage, spelling, punctuation, and capitalization, discovered by the…

Describes the dynamics of problem solving through spoken discourse in one-to-one tutoring of second-language writing in order to determine whether these processes vary with either instructional approach or language used. Tutors' and students' cooperative efforts to solve problems in the students' draft compositions focused primarily on local…