In this response to "Measuring Students' Writing Ability on a Computer Analytic Developmental Scale: An Exploratory Validity Study," the authors agree that assessments should seek parsimony in both theory and application wherever possible. Doing so allows maximal dissemination and implementation while minimizing costs. The Writing…

Writing is widely accepted as a tool in the personal and professional development of teachers. Among other forms of teacher writing, writing for publication is rather unusual as it requires courage to share ideas and unfavourable working conditions prevent teachers from finding time and space to write for publication in the first place. In this…

The present study was designed to test a group-based format of dynamic assessment (G-DA) in the context of writing over a time span of twelve weeks of instruction. A cohort of 60 students took a homogeneity test and based on the results, 44 students were selected to participate forming the two groups of experimental (N = 22) and control (N = 22).…

This study examines the patterns of growth across both taught and untaught genres of writing for deaf and hard of hearing students in grades 4-6. Twenty-three students were exposed to Strategic and Interactive Writing Instruction (SIWI) for 5 weeks, during which time they received guided, interactive instruction focused on how writers address…

The author is pleased to have the opportunity to respond to "Measuring Students' Writing Ability on a Computer-Analytic Developmental Scale: An Exploratory Validity Study." The authors of that article have undertaken a challenging project and seem to be on track to developing a technically adequate, practically useful writing…

The literature on the topical organization of essays suggests that there are four possible types of progression from the topic of one clause to the topics of the following clauses. These are parallel, sequential, extended parallel, and extended sequential progressions. Essay writers' ability to create cohesion and coherence can be evaluated on the…

This article presents the Critical Reading Topics approach, a pedagogical method employed to promote deep thinking in a variety of politics courses. Derived from principles articulated in active learning, critical thinking, backward design, and flipped classroom literature, this method utilizes Bloom's Taxonomy as the scaffolding for students to…

Some research on literacy acquisition suggests that implicit learning processes may be related to reading and writing proficiency in English, which is a deep orthography. However, little research has been done to determine if the same is true in shallow orthographies. Here, we investigated whether the implicit learning ability of third grade…

In this article, Darrell Rasco, a full-time student at Waxahachie Global High (STEM/ECHS), presents a dialogue that took place between him and his high school teacher throughout the course of several writing assignments during the school year. Through writing assignments and encouragement from his teacher, Darrell has recently discovered his…

Research shows that cognitively demanding text-based writing assignments increase students' reading comprehension skills and analytic writing competencies. In this article, we describe the steps that upper-elementary grade teachers can take to develop cognitively demanding assignments that build these higher-level literacy skills and put students…

The internationalisation of higher education generates several issues related to quality, uniformity of subjects taught across campuses and the role of differences in English-speaking ability, which may affect student learning and skills development. This study used a self-assessment survey framework to investigate Australian (native English…

Writing is an important teaching and learning tool that fosters active and critical thinking. There are multiple pressures for disciplines outside the humanities and social sciences to integrate writing in their courses. The shift from teaching solely discipline-specific skills to including writing in a meaningful way can be a daunting process. An…

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…

The main purpose of this study was to see the effect of a Balanced Literacy program on the students' academic achievement (the 8th Grade NYS ELA exams) between the years of 2005, 2006, and 2007. This study analyzed the effects of Balanced Literacy on student achievement scores at the 8th grade level. In addition, the effect of teacher's training…

Writing research proposal in educational setting is a very complex process involving variety of elements. Consequently, analyzing the complex elements from introduction to data analysis sections in order to yield convinced research proposal writing through reviewing reputable journal articles is worth-contributing. The objectives of this research…