Encouraging students to 'believe that they can achieve' is a central element to teaching. The belief that it is one's efforts and techniques, rather than one's innate abilities which lead to success has a positive impact on learning behaviours. As such, Yvonne Skipper strives to promote this malleable view of intelligence (or growth mindset) in…

Not too many years ago, right about the start of the new millennium, the TAMU-CC Writing Center began to pull away from the model of a center that focuses mostly on individual consultations and began to build a greater sense of the place of the Writing Center in the larger university Writing Community. In this article, we share how we have built…

Advances the idea of using the workshop format for basic writers' development as writers. Finds that workshops generate conversations and discussions that encourage social, political, and economic awareness to help basic writers discover who and where they are in society. (PA)

With selections from both teachers and students from writers conferences, festivals, and workshops, this anthology brings together a group of "seasoned and fresh writers" for readers/students to savor. The anthology points out that each summer writers conferences are held at Mount Holyoke, Bread Loaf, Sewanee, Iowa City, Port Townsend,…

A study examined a program for promoting standard writing skill development to facilitate effective communication. Targeted were three regular third- and fourth-grade classes and one bilingual fourth-grade class in growing, middle class communities located west of a large metropolitan area. The lack of developmentally appropriate spelling and…