Examines the use of music as a springboard for writing. Provides an explanation of how basic writing students can use music-writing activities to discover meaningful topics and ideas, to develop specific supporting details, and to understand the connections between purpose and audience. (RS)

Discusses whether written or oral peer review is more successful in developmental composition courses. Concludes that while oral reviews are generally preferred by intermediate developmental students, the success of peer review depends on the conglomerate personality of the class itself, based on the students' writing ability, self-concept,…

Claims compositionists misrecognize stylistic and institutionalized conventions of academic discourse in their own rhetoric and in the evaluation of their students. Argues that students should be included in the practices by which compositionists "normalize" these conventions. Suggests how students might be included in the evaluative…

Analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of a project that used a peer group leader to help build bridges between basic writers and academic writers. Discusses the implications for the further use of peer group leaders in basic writing. (NH)

Offers a brief Foucauldian archeological history of the "Journal of Basic Writing." Attempts to (1) describe broad historical features of the construction of Basic Writers' identities; (2) examine instances in which critical disruptions and overlaps of such constructions occur; and (3) explore what such moments reveal about trends and…

Considers how allowing developmental students to incorporate some of their language and culture into their writing helps them become more proficient writers. Suggests that the best way to teach basic writers is through both process and a respect for the social discovery that ensues as one composes. (SC)

What do Slinky toys, sign language, clipboards, golf pencils, and a house icon have in common? They all are a part of the author's writing and reading program, which teaches children how to write, and then read what they have written. This book includes: effective strategies that address multiple learning styles; a ready-to-use form for ongoing…

Despite multiple and persuasive arguments against the validity of doing so, many basic writers continue to be identified by what Brian V. Street calls the "autonomous model of literacy," a model that research tells us is as artificial and inappropriate as it is ubiquitous. This article describes a curricular response to the political,…

One challenge for composition instructors is to determine exactly, or even approximately, what objects and rituals must be observed for students' words to fall with the "true." Another is to successfully communicate these objects and rituals to their students through the various techniques of discipline. The arbitrary nature of…

Generally, students in vocational and technical colleges are in writing classes because they must be, not because they want to be. As a rule, students in basic composition classes have been more or less continually exposed to writing classes since middle school where they been asked to keep journals, read articles and short stories, and write…

This book briefs teachers on how to analyze individual students' spelling errors and coach them on strategies to overcome them. Although the book deals with spelling weaknesses of both learning disabled and basic writers, its message to practitioners can also provide help for any student who has spelling weaknesses. The book is organized in two…

Writing processes and writing skills are highly compatible, but only if "writing skills" are defined as genuinely helpful learning strategies rather than prescriptive techniques or isolated forms and rules. Increased skill is a product of meaningful practice, not prescriptive instructions or isolated drills. In the present context, the…

A study developed an objective approach to measuring the effects of collaborative learning techniques, and assessed the impact of collaborative learning on reducing writing problems for developmental students. One-hundred two developmental English students participated in an experimental writing class that used only collaborative learning…

When it comes to "student-centered" teaching, who knows what teachers are talking about? Specifically, the multiple perspectives offered in today's diverse classrooms have rendered such terms slippery and subjective. In a student-centered classroom, to "be" the one who knows what the students are talking about, the writing…

Focuses on the implications of identity in the construction of classroom culture. Finds that teacher/researchers usually center attention on the students in the room, with the teacher being peripheral. Uses an informal survey to help examine participants' institutions for racial, gender, and class differences. (PA)