Compares writing an article to the steps in a lesson plan, discussing 7 components of lesson plans and arguing that the same steps can be used to produce a well-written article. (SR)

Eighty-five preservice-education students observed a science experiment concerning either buoyancy or the forces acting on a stationary object, then wrote a series of explanations. Results suggest that students' use of rhetorical structures (explanation, comparison, argumentation, and summarization) stimulated construction of new knowledge, but…

Describes the benefits of technology in special education and the use of electronic mail as an instructional strategy. Highlights the use of electronic mail by a student with Down syndrome to learn communication, reading, and written expression skills. Recommendations for using technology in the classroom are provided. (CR)

A study involving 106 elementary and secondary students with learning disabilities and 97 typical peers found that students who used spelling and grammar checkers were more successful than transition group students in reducing mechanical errors, particularly non-real-word spelling errors, and in making positive changes from first to final drafts.…

Notes that joint composition at the computer is common in United Kingdom primary schools. Finds that even children as young as seven years can jointly plan a story at the computer. Uses examples of pupils' discourse while composing to illustrate the processes by which they produced written text. (RS)

States that theories of intellectual development offer writing teachers productive ways to analyze student writing; help students develop strategies for improving their writing processes; and consider the implications of writing assignments. Finds that frameworks posited by Jean Piaget and by others contribute useful ways of understanding why…

Discusses how both novels share key thematic elements pertaining to the experiences of migrants from rural Appalachia to multiethnic industrial centers of the urban north. Notes that a focus on the authors' handling of material culture helps to point one with increased clarity and precision to the writerly method by which Attaway and Arnow convey…

Presents tips for creating a successful schoolwide newsletter by using desktop publishing software applications. Provides examples of information to include in a library media center newsletter. Discusses readers' needs, layout and format, graphics, news leads and headlines, and visual images, as well as various newswriting and editing techniques.…

Focuses on "emphasis and interest" as elements of power in writing that moves the reader along "roads of news." Suggests revisions in selected sentences from student publications, revisions which improve the sentences to give more information in opening sentences and nonrepetitive amplification in following sentences. Cites…

Examines the discussion of results in medical research articles to determine the strategies used by the writers to persuade the readers that their research is either new or a development of previous work and that their study is a contribution to a specialist field. Twenty-four research articles were analyzed using Swales moves analysis as well as…

Examined process approaches to writing in fifth-grade classrooms led by teachers using procedural or workshop approaches. Found all teachers engaged students in the recursive steps of process writing, but there was significant variability in other aspects. Epistemological beliefs about teaching and learning were highly predictive of the type of…

Traces the history of reform in writing instruction and places it in the context of current educational reform initiatives. Examines the dilemmas teachers and teacher educators face as they balance their concern for maintaining and fostering what is known about the teaching and learning of writing with the growing focus on achievement on…

The popular mantra "Every teacher is a teacher of reading" and several decades of emphasis on content-area literacy have not resulted in major changes in reading and writing across the curriculum in secondary schools. In this article, we argue that reading and writing strategy instruction has not focused on what really matters to content-area…

The popular mantra "Every teacher is a teacher of reading" and several decades of emphasis on content-area literacy have not resulted in major changes in reading and writing across the curriculum in secondary schools. In this article, we argue that reading and writing strategy instruction has not focused on what really matters to content-area…

This article considers students' classroom notebooks, their character and their role in learning. The results presented were found within the frame work of a broader international project, the Learners Perspective Study, whose goal is to identify classroom practice from the students' point of view. Two 8th grade classrooms were studied. In each,…