This paper examines a program that teaches writing skills to students in an administration-preparation program. The program is broadly aimed at strengthening writing instruction and raising the level of writing competency among students in all departmental programs. The examination focuses on gaining a better understanding of the faculty's views…

This report describes a program for enriching language use in writing. The targeted population consisted of one classroom of fourth grade students in a public elementary school. This school is in the small rural community near a large city in the Midwest. The problem of lack of language skills in writing was documented with teacher and student…

Noting that the emphasis in writing instruction over the past 40 years has shifted from product to process, this digest focuses on the experience of individual teachers as they searched for ways to put the principles of process writing into practice in the classroom. The first section discusses writer's workshops, noting that teachers have found…

Adds the student's theory of the writing process to three competing theories: expressive, cognitive, and social. Attempts to put writing in its proper place as one small facet of students' lives, rather than relegating students' lives to the secondary status of one more influence on their writing. (RS)

Argues that, although most people dislike writing, instructors can make the task less onerous for young students. Suggests that the presence of both feeling and awareness of an audience can facilitate writing. Includes segments of interviews with professional writers and samples of seven-year-olds' writings. (SG)

Argues that the metaphor of writing as cognitive mapping can serve not as a basis for a new model or theory of writing, but as an attitudinal guide for concerns with writing and instruction. Notes that the term "cognitive mapping" suggests that the mental world can be seen metaphorically as a physical world. (RS)

Discusses self-examination as a prerequisite to authorship. Defines the soliloquy as an internal question-and-answer exchange enabling the thinker to distinguish better ideas from worse. Argues that use of the soliloquy develops in the student writer a voice of authority. Identifies the soliloquy as a device for exploring values. (SG)

Notes that the move from writing privately to writing professionally can be daunting. Suggests that various kinds of sharing, group interaction, and feedback from colleagues can ease the transition from private to public writing. (SR)

Uses the provocative metaphor of becoming a nudist to illustrate that teachers should write, and share their writing, with their students. Describes a program in which student teachers spent six weeks in class and seven weeks in student teaching and were required to keep journals in which they reflected on what they had learned. (PA)

Finds a relationship between parents' perceptions of literacy learning and the perceptions of literacy learning which their children were developing but, within this group, finds an extremely weak relationship between parents' perceptions of literacy learning and their children's emerging literacy knowledge. Finds that children were developing…

Argues that writing teachers must create an organic curriculum with the language of home and community at its core. Suggests that writing teachers help students examine language features, dialects, and language attitudes in their communities. Notes that such student inquiry influences class discussions and can reshape attitudes toward students'…

Reports on the gender-related difference in out-of-school writing experience of adult students returning to college. Discusses implications for teaching, maintaining that the differing writing backgrounds such students bring are resources to be utilized rather than deficits to be remedied. (SR)

Presents suggestions from 4 teachers on (1) the benefits accrued over 9 years of a visiting authors program at a middle school; (2) using 60-second synopses for better concentration; (3) structured overviews for teaching science concepts and terms; and (4) how musicians see writing differently. (SR)

Structured interviews with 44 Canadian Native and non-Native first and second graders found that most children had positive self-images as writers and enjoyed writing at home and school. Native and non-Native children differed in awareness of the purposes of writing, ability to reflect on writing processes, and mention of extended family as an…

Examines changes in writing apprehension and blocking behavior among first- and second-language writers in first-year composition classes using computers. Finds that computer use alone did not reduce overall apprehension for either group and that it reduced blocking behavior for second-language writers but not for first-language writers. (SR)