A notable feature of the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts is the attention given to the teaching of reading and writing in history/social studies, science and technical subjects. The Standards for Reading Informational Text that are included in the Common Core State Standards require students to read texts in depth, understand…

Over the last four years of the senior capstone seminar at Western Carolina University, we have redesigned the course substantially to comply with our institutional Quality Enhancement Plan for engaged student learning and to follow the guidelines proposed by the Mathematical Association of America's Committee on Undergraduate Programs in…

What constitutes an informational text covers a broad swath of different types of texts. Biographies & memoirs, speeches, opinion pieces & argumentative essays, and historical, scientific or technical accounts of a non-narrative nature are all included in what the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) envisions as informational text. Also included…

Advantages and disadvantages to writing behavioral objectives, especially for teachers of language arts, are discussed. The three commonly accepted domains of learnings--cognitive, affective, and psychomotor--are presented in relation to verbs used to indicate learning in those domains. Steps in identifying evidences of learning are: (1) State…

Efforts to improve educational outcomes for English learners often focus on "academic language," but unfortunately the field lacks a clear, agreed-upon definition of the concept. This article reports on a design research study that focused on students' engagement in one academic practice over several months: reading and discussing…

This paper is designed to provide basic information for writing behavioral objectives for teaching and testing instructional objectives in the psychomotor, affective, and cognitive domains. Procedures stress the stating of performance objectives as learning outcomes in terms of specific learner behavior. The paper discusses: (1) desired outcomes…

To illustrate the importance of clarity and precision in stating objectives for learning a particular job task, a training consultant provides answers to the previous issue's questionnaire on writing instructional objectives. (MF)

How has the teaching of writing changed in the 21st century? In this innovative guide, real teachers share their stories, successful practices, and vivid examples of their students' creative and expository writing from online and multimedia projects, such as blogs, wikis, podcasts, electronic poetry, and more. The book also addresses assessment:…

Background: In the era of education reform when new teaching approaches are being advocated, it is important to investigate how different classroom discourse patterns are related to different educational outcomes. Aim: The purpose of the study was to analyse the whole classroom discourse of two teacher interns' writing classes. It was conducted…

There are 127 basic composition objectives in this revised collection for use in kindergarten through high school. At least one evaluation per objective is given. The objectives are organized as follows: (1) Story Writing which covers fanciful and realistic types such as: myths, fable, short story, fiction, and writing dialogue; (2) Letters both…

This guide offers students suggestions on keeping a journal in which they record what they do, think, and feel. The guide examines the purposes of keeping a journal; discusses writing to a correspondent who will respond to the journal entries; shows how to express thoughts and feelings about events instead of just reporting on the events; offers…

After a long process of trial and error, a freshman composition course was developed on the basis of three assumptions. First, freshman English should be a course in expository writing rather than a literature course, since a great deal of time is required for students to master the complicated skills involved in effective exposition. Second,…

Reports on the composition program at a New Jersey high school and on faculty members' viewpoints about goals and problems in the teaching of writing skills. (GW)

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) evaluated the writing ability of American students in 1974, 1979, and 1984. Data from 95,000 students were examined for trends over this 10-year period. Writing tasks, including informative, persuasive, and literary or imaginative writing were administered to national samples of students aged…