This program profile describes how teachers and administrators have collaborated in the design and implementation of a number of linguistic, cultural, and transmodal pedagogical and curricular initiatives. Strategies that writing teachers can implement to best meet the needs of multilingual students across a range of institutional contexts are…

This chapter tells a story of course reform, describing in a fresh and candid way the steps taken toward change and the results achieved. The authors emphasize that instructors need considerable support in order to teach differently, as well as underscore the need to consider scalability of reform even at the pilot stage.

By 2013, all 50 states and the District of Columbia had adopted college- and career-ready standards in English language arts and mathematics, placing a greater emphasis on argument writing to prepare students for life after high school. Solving the specific problem of how to help teachers teach to new standards for argument writing as well as the…

This article describes lessons learned about grouping by teachers and teacher educators who worked collaboratively to design and deliver a summer writing institute for a heterogeneous population of students about to begin ninth grade at an urban high school. Institute staff used co-teaching (Cook & Friend, 1995) extensively to provide support for…

In 2007, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) funded 22 colleges to establish developmental summer bridge programs. Aimed at providing an alternative to traditional developmental education, these programs involve intensive remedial instruction in math, reading, and/or writing and college preparation content for students entering…

Focusing on the practical applications of content area writing, and programs using writing assignments in all areas of the college curriculum, this serial issue has three sections. The theme article, "Writing across the Curriculum," discusses the writing across the curriculum movement, and examines ways two colleges have incorporated…

The idea of setting up a computer center in the Creighton University English department was conceived in 1982 shortly after the department chair purchased his first computer. A committee on the relationship between the computer and English composition was established. In 1987, a proposal for 30 computers and 15 printers was turned down by the…

Describes the objectives and background of a project designed to implement change in a school district's written communication program and analyzes the data obtained from writing evaluation forms. (HOD)

California Early Literacy Learning (CELL) and Extended Literacy Learning (ExLL) are professional development programs designed to help elementary teachers strengthen their teaching of reading and writing. Research-based teaching methodologies are organized into a framework for classroom instruction. CELL training (pre-K-Grade 3) emphasizes that…

This article outlines the experiences of a first-year writing program's adoption of large-scale portfolio assessment as part of its move from student-focused assessment to programmatic assessment. This research is an attempt to provide evidence to support the claims benefits associated with portfolio assessment and to chronicle the changes that…

The five articles in this journal issue are intended for use by school administrators, and provide information on how to organize effective programs for achieving student writing competency. The first article discusses the development of New York State's Preliminary and Regents Competency Tests in Writing, analyzes sample student responses to one…

Designed to provide teachers with ideas and resources that make it possible to nourish and build upon the skills of young writers, this guide deals with effective writing instruction within the elementary school and using the writing process with primary children. The guide addresses issues related to, and provides suggestions for, the teaching of…

Flexibility and change have characterized the 3-year history of the English curriculum-enrichment component of the Biomedical Sciences Preparatory Program (BioPrep)--a program that stresses science for rural high school students but includes the importance of writing and communication skills. In the program's first year the curriculum team set out…

California Early Literacy Learning (CELL) and Extended Literacy Learning (ExLL) are professional development programs designed to help elementary teachers strengthen their teaching of reading and writing. Research-based teaching methodologies are organized into a framework for classroom instruction. CELL training (pre-K-Grade 3) emphasizes that…

This study examined the effectiveness of the first year of a project designed to support the use of computers to improve the writing skills of middle level students. Subjects, 2,285 students from all of the 16 school districts in Delaware, engaged in daily writing activities on computers using the process approach to writing. One teacher from each…