Intended as an aid to language arts curriculum development, the four sections of this guide present, in chart form, a sequential set of learning outcomes and assessment levels for the skills of writing, speaking/listening, critical thinking, and reading. (FL)

The Fitchburg, Massachusetts, school system's writing program designed to meet the requirements of the commonwealth's Basic Skills Improvement Policy is discussed in this paper. The skills sequences that were selected for use in the areas of composition (levels kindergarten through grade 12) and mechanics and usage (levels two through nine) are…

This paper describes procedures that can be used in individual schools to evaluate various aspects of their English programs. The major portion of the paper discusses schools' ability to foster voluntary reading, in the face of the widely reported decline in such reading after grade eight. Specific suggestions are given for bridging the gap…

Graduate students do need and can benefit from instruction in the basis of composition, but the definition of what each student basically needs will vary so greatly that individual instruction is the only meaningful way to meet those needs. The demand for such instruction spurred the development of a graduate course at North Texas State University…

Guidelines for curriculum design in reading, composition, and grammar and usage are presented in the form of required skills for each of four grades (6-9). Four English examinations designed to test these skills are also provided. Brief comments on examinations in other subject areas offered by the National Association of Independent Schools and a…

This curriculum guide reviews current theories on the teaching of writing, focuses on the nature of composition, and enumerates sequences of writing exercises for seventh and eighth grade teachers to consider for assigning to their students. Contents include "Rhetoric in the 1960's," which defines composition and explains what languaging is about;…

The Quinmester course "Expository Writing" is designed to help students develop competence in writing topic sentences and expository paragraphs incorporating the methods of cause and effect, comparison and contrast, illustration or example. The process of composition is taught in the following sequence: identification of the audience;…

As part of a review of emphases in high school and college language-arts curricula, the American College Testing Program sponsored an invitational language-arts conference at its national office, in February 1976. The eight conference participants were selected to represent various fields of specialization and several institutional affiliations.…

Considers the revolutionary effects of including more interdisciplinary content in English and the idea of teaching English indirectly through a focus on meaning that would result in an "agenda of learning" across the disciplines. (JK)

Foreign and American college freshmen at the University of Southern California were administered a questionnaire to determine their past, present, and future writing needs to illuminate concerns curriculum planners should consider. Data on survey responses are presented. (SW)

In order to support an argument for the teaching of grammar in a writing class, this report first summarizes the descriptive studies done by Kellogg Hunt in 1965 and 1970, and the comparative studies done by John Mellon and Frank O'Hare in 1969 and 1973. The second part of the report consists of five workshop handouts about the following topics:…

Using data from three studies, this paper focuses on competency education trends in California in the area of writing. The studies reviewed in the paper examined (1) the competency examinations produced by students in one high school in 1980, (2) the various means employed in 1981 by five school districts in the San Francisco Bay area to implement…

Emphasizing the interrelationships of listening, speaking, reading, and writing, this curriculum guide for the New Orleans (Louisiana) Public Schools provides a comprehensive language program for each grade level from kindergarten through grade 6. Following brief statements of philosophy and objectives, the bulk of the guide is devoted to…