The motivational value of Virginia's Public Education Network (VA PEN), specifically the Thomas Jefferson On-line discussion group, is examined in this study. The instructional value of the network with respect to student motivation in fourth grade students of varied ability was gauged through observation of actual hands-on network experience,…

The program and abstracts of the presentations of the 1992 meeting of the Society for College Science Teachers are the topics of this report. Society officers are listed, a history of the society is provided, and membership information is given. The presentations reflect different topics in the teaching of college science. The abstracts of…

Intended for both beginning and experienced teachers at the secondary and college levels as well as teacher educators and assessment teams, this book reviews strengths and weaknesses of the major types of writing assessment, both for large-scale evaluations and for the individual classroom. The book includes: practical examples, applications, and…

A practicum was developed to determine whether the motivation of a private school's ninth grade English class (18 students) could be increased by gearing the course toward a specified, authentic public audience and whether an increase in motivation would positively affect the quality of and attitude toward writing assignments and the use of…

Compiled by a classroom teacher for classroom teachers, this book presents over 75 activities and over 140 associated worksheets designed to implement the process approach to writing in the fourth through eighth grade classroom. The book notes that process writing provides the student not only with a "recipe" for writing, but also with two…

In a freshman composition course, the teacher attempted to motivate student interest in writing by assigning biographical readings and fiction that felt like real life. In reading the books, students found topics for writing about their own lives. During the first class session, students were given the topic "The Story of My Life: A…

This packet of materials is a compilation of materials from the "Library Use Instruction" class (LIS 450AC) in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois. This half-credit course, which is designed to prepare librarians to teach library skills to users, reviews the history of bibliographic…

To prepare students to live in a diverse world, writing teachers must create a non-threatening environment in their classrooms and introduce the issues of race, ethnicity, and class in reading and writing assignments. One assignment that a writing teacher used successfully both in a writing workshop course for less proficient writers and in a…

Basic algebra at Robert Morris College (RMC) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is a remedial course for students with virtually no algebra background, and for students whose previous experiences with algebra have created math blocks and math anxiety. A study was conducted in an effort to measure quantitatively the benefits of using linguistic methods…

Composition classes at East Georgia College, a two-year college in the University System of Georgia, use some literature and literary discussions without compromising the "integrity" of the composition course. Cultural backgrounds of students are similar--most come from non-reading homes, and some say they have never read a whole book.…

In 1983, Charles County Community College (CCCC) initiated a project to infuse academic information from the sciences, humanities, and social sciences into developmental courses. The reorganization assignments related to 27 topics that promoted academic examination and cultural literacy while at the same time drawing from students' own…

Everyone sees through advertisements, yet no one is immune from their appeal. In a writing class the students were able to look at ads without being injured or seduced by them, but doubted that others could do the same. It is important to encourage students to discuss what they actually think about writings rather than what they are supposed to…

This booklet outlines the California state guidelines for writing which assert that students should be carefully taught to read and compose many types of discourse to prepare them for higher education, the job market, and citizenship in democracy. The booklet summarizes the purposes for which the California Assessment Program (CAP) was developed,…

First year writing students were asked which kinds of writing they enjoyed, and why. Their responses indicate a preference for "creative" writing, where "creative" is defined as "personal." The students in the research sample reacted against a form of knowing that requires them to place more emphasis on objects (human…

A series of computer programs have been developed at Michigan Technological University for use with technical writing and technical communications classes. The first type of program in the series, CURIE II, includes process-based modules, each of which corresponds to one of the following assignments: memoranda, resumes, feasibility reports,…