The ability to write effectively and use writing as a tool for learning is essential for students' success in the middle grades--and beyond. This practice guide highlights several research-based practices that can be used school-wide to help middle grades students become better writers. This paper presents four questions middle grades educators…

A random sample of language arts, social studies, and science middle school teachers from the United States were surveyed about their preparation to teach writing, beliefs about responsibilities for teaching writing, use of evidence-based writing practices, assessment of writing, use of technology, and adaptations for struggling writers. The…

In this response to Burdick et al. (2013), the author describes two possible and perhaps even common reactions to the article by Burdick et al. (2013). Advocates such as Way, Davis, and Strain- Seymour (2008) will likely applaud the development of the Writing Ability Developmental Scale and the possible widespread use of computer-based writing…

The purpose of the current study was to develop and validate a measure of motivation for use with basic college writers that would measure self-efficacy, achievement goals, beliefs, and affect. As part of a design research project on curriculum for community college developmental writing classes, 133 students in 11 classes completed the motivation…

The famed playwright Harold Pinter, having just been introduced as a very good writer, was once asked by a six-year-old boy if he could do a "w." The author suspects that "w" was a difficult letter for this young man, and he judged the writing capability of others accordingly. This student's assumption--that being a "good…

During this decade there have been numerous efforts to identify instructional practices that improve students' writing. These include "Reading Next" (Biancarosa and Snow, 2004), which provided a set of instructional recommendations for improving writing, and "Writing Next" (Graham and Perin, 2007) and "Writing to Read" (Graham and Hebert, 2010),…

A random sample of language arts, social studies, and science high school teachers (N = 361; 53% women) from the United States were surveyed about what their students wrote, their use of evidence-based writing practices, the adaptations they made for weaker writers, how they assessed writing, their preparation to teach writing, beliefs about the…

The instructional applicability of a variety of handwriting assessment techniques is examined. Informal procedures, handwriting scales, and systematic methods used in recent research methodology are critically reviewed. For each class of assessment techniques, relevant information on validity, reliability, and utility is presented. (Author/CL)

Discusses the development of phonological awareness skills in early childhood and assessment of phonological awareness abilities. Explains rhyming tests, blending tests, and segmentation tests, along with specific intervention tasks and intervention materials and programs. Urges explicit training in phonological awareness for all children. (CR)

Investigates validity and reliability of a teacher efficacy instrument designed specifically for the area of writing. Notes a factor analysis yielded two dimensions, and that both factors were reliable and only slightly correlated with each other. Finds reported classroom practices of high- and low-efficacy teachers differed, and that variation in…

The influence of disability labels, writing behavior of the person labeled, evaluator's expertise, and the interaction between these variables on the scores assigned to children's writing was examined. Disability labels did not affect the score, but the quality of writing and the examiner's expertise had a significant influence. (JAZ)

The "Education for All Handicapped Children Act" (1975) requires that all children with disabilities receive a free and appropriate public education. Determining who has a disability and who is eligible for special services, however, is not an exact science. While practices differ greatly both across and within states, screening is an…