This paper focuses on a pedagogical and instructional approach to engaging students in the classroom with the specific activity of a writing prompt, which utilizes a short video about current events and trends coupled with writing and discussion. This strategy allows active student learning in which the students engage, develop critical thinking…

At three different institutions, public and private, in varying roles, I have found the very particular problem of how to inform micro-level classroom practices with macro-level disciplinary knowledge to be centrally important to our field's development and our students' learning--and singularly difficult to overcome. In this program profile, I…

Literacy is the combination of reading, writing, speaking and listening skills we all need to fulfil our potential. These life skills are essential to the happiness, health and wealth of individuals and society. "Literacy: State of the Nation" provides a coherent picture of literacy in the UK today. It reveals that: (1) One in six people…

Writing is a complex process that presents challenges for middle school teachers and their students with and without disabilities. A particular area of difficulty is the application of content-area vocabulary in the explanatory writing of sixth-grade students. This two-group quasi-experimental study investigated the effectiveness of an elaborative…

Based on eighth-grade writing assessment data from the 1998 (N = 20,586) and 2007 (N = 139,900) National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), this study examines the relationships among students' writing attitudes, learning-related behaviors, and gender in relation to writing performance. Overall, the effects of attitudes were slightly…

In attempts to find appropriate and authentic materials for students who are developing their academic writing skills, instructors often turn to works written by professional academics. However, genres such as published research articles and textbooks in specific disciplines may not be the most suitable models for what first year composition…

This study seeks to examine the existence of Instant Messaging language phenomenon among female teenagers in some Jordanian private schools and its influence on their learning experience, mainly literacy. It also raises questions about the characteristics of textese as well as teachers' attitude towards their students' use of SMS language in their…

Adolescent literacy has emerged via the high-stakes standardized test known as the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT) as a critical area of debate and study. Research has indicated a direct connection between literacy and identity, and that student literacy practices differ from traditional measures of literacy located in school…

The writing across the curriculum movement has rightfully gained recognition as a transformative force in how teachers conceive of, use, and assign writing in their classes throughout various disciplines. Drawing on data from the first three years of an ongoing study of faculty "WAC fellows" at a large, comprehensive state university,…

Students' achievement in writing descriptive text is very low, in this study Think Pair Share (TPS) is applied to solve the problem. Action research is conducted for the result. Additionally, qualitative and quantitative techniques are applied in this research. The subject of this research is grade VIII in Junior High School in Indonesia. From…

This study investigated the impact of the New Jersey Writing Project in Texas (NJWPT) three-week professional development in writing instruction on teachers' attitudes toward writing and the teaching of writing. In addition, the research explored the impact of teacher attitude on the classroom implementation of writing strategies. Therefore, the…

This dissertation uncovered how a group of second language (L2) students, including international and immigrant students, became socialized into American academic discourse through the writing that they did as graduate students in the context of their academic field. In particular, this study focused on Mandarin Chinese-speaking graduate students…

A convenience sample of 618 children and adolescents in grades 4 through 10, excluding grade 8, were asked to complete a writing motivation and activity scale and to provide a timed narrative writing sample to permit an examination of the relationships between writing motivation, writing activity, writing performance, and the student…

Communication skills are a significant contributor to an individual's success in the workplace. Unfortunately, students often have trouble expressing their ideas in written form and the poor quality of students' written work often impedes the learning process. This pilot study investigates the use of online writing studios within a quality…

The 43rd annual conference of the Adult and Higher Education Alliance (AHEA) was held at the University of Central Florida in March 2019. Papers in these proceedings include the following: (1) How does Experimental Learning Increase Skills and Knowledge Acquisition and Retention in the Non-Traditional Adult Learner? (David Antico); (2) CHAT and…