The current focus of education is on preparing diverse student populations for college and career readiness. One critical aspect of this preparation is the development of 21st century learning skills that integrate technology to support students in becoming active members of a globalized society. According to the National Assessment of Educational…

This study explored whether presenting grammar instruction within the context of reading and writing would improve writing skills. The participating schools were using a traditional grammar instruction in which grammar lessons were predominately taught using worksheets and were presented separately from other reading and writing activities. This…

Within the field of writing teacher education, scholars and practitioners agree that effective writing instructors (at both the P--12 and postsecondary levels) are not simply cognizant of composition pedagogies, rhetorical theories, and their students' unique learning needs. Effective writing instructors also regularly…

This article describes a writing workshop that took place with 41 low-income, multi-ethnic 12th-grade students who received instruction on specific genre features for writing college admission essays. As a result, students improved the quality of their college admission essays and demonstrated greater confidence with this writing task. This…

Intended for elementary school language arts and reading teachers, this paper presents classroom activities using poetry to encourage divergent thinking and to give children the chance to play with language and to practice English language conventions in order to be effective readers and writers. The 12 activities are (1) combining poetry and…

This booklet presents descriptions of 31 successful basic skills language arts/writing programs for prekindergarten through grade 12, collected from school districts nationwide by the National Diffusion Network. Information provided for each program includes: (1) program name and brief description; (2) audience focus (noting grade and ability…

Noting that using correct verb forms is a problem for many elementary school students, and especially for those who are speakers of nonstandard English, this paper presents an instructional program for teaching past and past participle verb forms in writing to students in grade 3 through 6. The paper outlines the content of the instructional…

In the school year 2000-2001 students in Grade 10 took the Graduation Exit Examination for the 21st Century (GEE 21) Language Arts and Mathematics tests for the first time. For GEE 21, student scores are reported in terms of five achievement levels: Advanced, Proficient, Basic, Approaching Basic, and Unsatisfactory. This booklet is part of a…

There are a number of reasons for using creative writing in elementary and secondary English curricula. When students practice using figurative and literal language, they improve their speaking abilities, and their language becomes more concrete, more explicit, more descriptive, and more interesting. Writing poems and short stories forces students…

This revision of the "Basic/Essential Skills Taxonomy" exhibits changes based on use of the original taxonomy in the field. It features more precise definitions of the levels of key words and phrases, the deletion of some science items that ranged above basic skills, the combination of the language arts sections from the original two parts, and…

The language arts course content guides presented in this manual cover English, oral communications, and journalism in grades 9-12 and provide a framework from which a curriculum can be built. Within each subject area and at each grade level, skills are identified at three instructional levels: basic, developmental, and extension. The basic skills…

Representing a team effort that included education professionals and community members throughout the state of Louisiana, this curriculum guide updates a previous edition that outlines the language arts skills, levels of instruction, and suggested classroom activities for instruction from kindergarten through grade six. Following a brief…

This language arts curriculum guide for kindergarten combines the Basic Skills First Reading Guide and the Language Arts Guide to provide a comprehensive kindergarten curriculum. The objectives in the guide are categorized according to the strands (divisions of skill areas) for grades 1-12 to show how the curriculum in kindergarten prepares…

As part of the language arts curriculum framework developed in accordance with "Rules, Regulations, and Minimum Standards" of the Tennessee State Board of Education, this language arts curriculum guide contains the goals, concepts, and terminal objectives for first grade language arts. Following a brief introduction and description of…

As part of the language arts curriculum framework developed in accordance with "Rules, Regulations, and Minimum Standards" of the Tennessee State Board of Education, this language arts curriculum guide contains the goals, concepts, and terminal objectives for second grade language arts. Following a brief introduction and description of…