Aimed at elementary school teachers interested in promoting their students' enjoyment of and skill in writing, this guide offers a number of ideas for writing activities. The guide focuses on the creative use of language and suggests ways in which students can be stimulated to write poems and stories, create metaphors, write descriptions of people…

Focusing on writing as a language process, this booklet describes a framework for writing instruction that has as a major consideration the totality of language. The first section discusses writing as a language process, emphasizing that as children learn to write, they can also learn to listen, speak, and read. The second section focuses on the…

One way to help minority students with limited English proficiency (LEP) achieve a higher level of literacy is to use computers in language arts classes. Word processors now enable the production of software that involves students in text production and manipulation. This development has made it possible to introduce the computer into the…

This 34-item annotated bibliography examines the literature concerning language experience in the following areas: (1) the rationale for incorporating language arts in the primary classroom; (2) whether using language experience aids the child in developing reading strategies; (3) the achievement scores of children using language experience; (4)…

Adult literacy programs could be improved by determining the learning styles and life-styles of individual students and incorporating the findings into the instructional program. Many researchers have looked at adult students' lives and suggested teaching methods based on the studies. Some suggest using an instrument for identifying adults'…

Revision, an essential component of the writing process, encompasses two basic elements: rewriting the content to assure clarity, and editing the draft to eliminate mechanical and grammatical errors. It is important for teachers to plan lessons directed specifically toward helping children make more sense of their messages. This document presents…

Designed as a component of the Navajo Bilingual Bicultural Curriculum, "Ch'al" is the first book in a series of three initial readers composed of a teacher's guide and student reader-workbook. Lessons are introduced the second semester of kindergarten or whenever the teacher feels the children are ready to begin reading and should not be longer…

The second book in a series of three initial readers designed as a component of the Navajo Bilingual Bicultural Curriculum, "Chaa'" builds on the vocabulary introduced in "Ch'al" (the first book of the series). The second reader introduces all the remaining consonants (16), except "x," in the Navajo alphabet; 11 vowel…

A computer program entitled "Story Time" encourages preschool children to use the important language skills that develop during the first 3 or 4 years of life to create and print original stories. Although the computer does not write the stories, it aids the children in the creation of stories by prompting them with questions. In order to use the…

The adult basic education teacher of undereducated adults must know how to use techniques and materials that ensure success at the most basic levels. The language experience approach is one of the most effective techniques to use with these learners. Of the four language experience methods, the dictation and transcription methods are best suited…

This monograph presents classroom activities that were designed to encourage children to read and write in a self-reliant and responsible manner. The activities were chosen for their relevance to the children involved and because the vocabulary involved was interesting, familiar, and worth remembering and using again. The topics are arranged in…

To encourage teachers to use the language-experience approach (LEA) in teaching reading-language skills, a workshop was conducted in which teachers participated in a language-experience lesson. Participants were asked to discuss a controversial topic of current interest; during group discussion, ideas and vocabulary were evoked from the group.…

Applicable to kindergarten through grade 12, the individualized Language Arts composition program is based upon actual student experiences. Once student writing samples have been plotted on a diagnostic grid, the program's manual provides teachers with specific methods for meeting students' needs. Uniting cognitive, affective, and creative…

For many White Mountain Apache children, their first contact with the English language occurs in Head Start and day care programs, thus forcing them to learn to read and write a language they seldom use. This situation led the tribe to develop an Apache bilingual/bicultural program in which an orthography based on the letters of the English…

A story, as told by two migrant children to their classmates, begins with the loss of their father's job in Puerto Rico, and continues with the circumstances surrounding their move to Connecticut, the airplane flight to the United States, their first home on a tobacco farm, their move to the neighboring city, and ends as the bell rings for their…