Martin Seligman's psychology research on depression, published in 7 books and hundreds of articles, shows a correlation between attributional style and depression. "Explanatory style" is another term nearly synonymous with attributional style, a habitual way to explain, positively or negatively, external events. A "learned"…

A study examined the belief that to improve education, more must be learned not only about the abilities students bring into the classroom, but also about what the students do outside the classroom. Six freshmen were instructed to keep diaries detailing their views of college life. Each subject was given a blank diary entry on a diskette and…

This thesis describes a study that engaged 2 sections of English Composition I, 50 randomly selected students at Union County College during the fall semester of 1995. The goal of the study was to determine if in this sample population there was a positive correlation between self-concept and writing ability. The variables of the New Jersey…

There is a common belief that people have limited mental capabilities in that they are either good at English or mathematics, but not both. There is also a myth that men are naturally good at math, while women are not. But there are many good mathematicians who also write well. Also, good students appear to be good students, regardless of the…

Try as she would, one instructor of preservice teachers could not convince her students that such skills as reading and vocabulary are not good indicators of how well a secondary student will write, especially in the case of minorities. One of the hardest sells to new teachers is that students--at all levels--should write extensively, regardless…

An informal study explored the difficulties of writing teachers who are asked to set aside preferred ways of viewing student writing for state-mandated criteria when serving as evaluators for state-mandated tests, such as Florida's College Level Academic Skills Test (CLAST). Twelve high school, community college, and university-level writing…

A study examined: (1) what concepts of authorship were revealed in the oral and written language of children engaged in a bookmaking task and pre- and post-bookmaking interviews; and (2) how these concepts differ for good readers and writers in different grades. The study was conducted at two elementary schools in a small, middle-class Texas city.…

A study examined whether students, when removed from a video-based context, were able to transfer the writing-related objectives taught within a curriculum to similar writing tasks. Subjects were 24 sixth-grade, learning disabled students enrolled in a resource room language arts program who participated during the first year of a project.…

In the traditional alphabet, 26 letters represent 40 different and distinct sounds of the spoken English language in transcription. This prevents a one-to-one phoneme-grapheme correspondence since some of the written symbols represent more than one sound. These inconsistencies in the writing system, recognized as the source of difficulty in…

David Bartholomae's notion of "Writing on the Margins" is intriguing. He claims that good writers are those who "poise themselves on the margins in a tenuous and hesitant relationship to the language and methods of the university." This paradox is captivating because the margins serve as a place to which one is banished for not…

Developed as part of the America Reads Challenge, this booklet helps family and community members to identify "checkpoints"--what most children can do in reading and writing by developmental periods and what most children can read, by grade level. The checkpoints are grouped largely by three-year developmental periods because children of…

This report examines the writing portfolio evaluations (administered between 1993-1998) of former Columbia Basin College (CBC) students who transferred to Washington State University (WSU). The WSU writing portfolio acts as a diagnostic aid to assure that all students can be successful college writers. The evaluation is required of all WSU…

This study examined factors contributing to poor literacy and numeracy development among black South African children ages 5.5 to 7 years. Findings pointed to a conglomerate of factors, namely inadequate visual-motor integration, poor visual analysis and synthesis, poor fine motor development, and inadequate exposure to mediated reading and…

Twenty-six articles including information about the cognitive and academic characteristics of learning-disabled college students are reviewed, focusing on levels of intellectual functioning, reading achievement, mathematics achievement, written expression, and foreign language performance. Research needs and implications for service provision are…

This paper proposes the use of portfolio assessment practices to evaluate literacy development in students of diverse ability levels. It examines how to assist students in becoming self-evaluators and discusses problems inherent in relying exclusively on end-product assessments. Sample observation forms and student checklists are provided.…