A focus on people--whether community members, students, historical figures, or fictional characters--and their motivations brings excitement to learning. A community's experts on everything from jazz music and Chinese tapestries to building construction can help students move inside history and other subjects. (MLH)

An effective way to conduct writing conferences and support primary students in writing is to find questions that encourage more thinking and writing as they work. Four strategies include: avoiding yes/no questions, encouraging students to value work, evaluating many writing samples, and refocusing in conferences. The paper offers sample writing…

Outlines the writing process. Describes various classroom writing activities that offer simple frameworks, introductions to the process, and activities involved in each stage to help young children (even primary students) effectively use the writing process, and eagerly look forward to writing and publishing. (SR)

Considers how the "process approach" to writing presupposes that a student has an idea, possesses a reasonable control over syntax, and has an appropriate vocabulary. Suggests that students need something "outside the box" to help them enhance the quality of their writing. Presents a project using multimedia tools to enhance…

Provides a list of 25 ideas that will enrich reading and writing programs. These ideas include reading aloud, reading demonstrations, reading conferences, independent and shared reading, miscue analysis, guided reading, theme immersion, independent writing, author/illustrator studies, personal journal writing, letter writing, and publishing. (MOK)

Responses from 73 of 100 vocational-technical faculty indicated they were generally not apprehensive about writing. There was a need for emphasizing the writing process in graduate programs and overcoming fear of evaluation of written work and of publishing. There were no differences between two- and four-year faculty. (SK)

Promotes honest debate focused upon clearer and more accurate writing. Errors commonly found in texts originate in part by overhasty publication and oversimplification. (SAH)

Reports on a study in which students with and without learning disabilities wrote persuasive essays about controversial topics. One group of students was given an elaborated goal that included explicit subgoals based on the elements of argumentation. Sixth-grade students in the elaborated goal condition produced more persuasive essays and included…

Examines interactive writing, an innovative approach to early writing instruction. Documents the concepts about print and writing strategies that a Title I reading teacher taught her first grade students across the school year. Indicates that interactive writing provides many opportunities to teach critical and fundamental literacy concepts.…

As scholars increasingly view the World Wide Web (the Web) as a legitimate research resource in academic writing, questions remain regarding how Web sources, as new media, influence the writing of second and foreign language (L2) learners. Via a 17-item questionnaire and an analysis of the references to 243 Web sources in the essays of 43 Japanese…

Written language requires prior knowledge of many foundation language skills. Students with language learning disabilities find it difficult to integrate language skills into academic writing assignments. Exceptional educators can teach foundation writing skills through certain underlying components of language, that is, phonology, morphology,…

Describes an instructor's analysis of students' responses to an assignment to describe the events of September 11, 2001 for a visual and media literacy course. Discusses the impact of media reports on students' perceptions of those events, and the inability of most students to critically analyze the situation because of the absence of personal…

Since the early 1970s, many educators have touted writing as a means of enhancing learning. Several reasons have been suggested for this purported enhancement: that writing is a form of learning, that writing approximates human speech, that writing supports learning strategies. Alternatively, some researchers have cautioned that the educative…

This essay describes a special topics creative writing course designed for nursing students, and argues that creative writing strategies work to improve nurses' compositional skills. Also discussed are other potential benefits from creatively writing patients' lives, notably, the blending of arts and sciences, and the ways in which medical schools…

Sooner or later, every educator hears the following plea from a current or former student: "Will you write a letter of recommendation for me?" Usually, the student is seeking employment or applying to a college or university for additional education. Many times instructors--taken off guard and unprepared for these requests--find themselves staring…