Describes a successful program of "contemplation writing," in which, through a counting technique and a music technique, children learn how to contemplate their inner experience, write about it, and discuss it. (SR)

Argues that, difficult though it is to learn, revision is one of the most important components in helping students to perceive themselves as writers. Offers several teaching strategies for fostering revision. (SR)

Provides an outline for teachers who wish to incorporate a Letter to the Editor project in their classroom assignments. Reprints some actual letters from ninth graders based on this assignment. (MG)

Discusses revision as a form of learning and as a response to all kinds of literature, whether imitating what went before, reacting against it, or making something genuinely new of it. Offers numerous writing activities based on this idea. (SR)

Argues that English-as-a-Second-Language writing can have its own distinctive power and eloquence in spite of, and sometimes because of, its errors. Examines several different kinds of "poetic" nonnativisms, suggesting why they were created and why they may strike native speakers as especially expressive. (SR)

Discusses teaching argument using participatory action research (PAR), a recent phrase for the old idea of learning by practice. Describes the use of hypothetical cases that provide a context-rich series of overlapping issues, which involve students as principals, and which are addressed and resolved through reading, analysis of various arguments,…

Examines four first-graders' messages to family members in their "family message journals," as students were learning to "do science." Finds that they consistently composed texts in which they appropriated the linguistic conventions of science and that they seemed able to use these conventions flexibly, recontextualizing the…

Learning through writing is a way of learning not only the appropriate written expression of disciplinary knowledge, but also the knowledge itself through reflection and revision. This study investigates the quality of a writing experience provided to university students in a first-year biology subject. The writing instruction methodology used is…

"Developing and Assessing an Online Research Writing Course" discusses how the Writing Program at the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) created a hybrid, online research writing course, Writing 50, and assessed that course. The assessment, which is at the center of this piece, was dovetailed with assessment literature in…

Part of a series of books written and illustrated by the students of Northland School Division, Alberta, Canada, this anthology of elementary school student writing honors the spirit and authentic voice of young people. The writing selections in the book are made accessible to educators so that a bridge of understanding can continue to be built…

This booklet provides Alberta (Canada) grade 9 teachers, administrators, and students with samples of the full range of students' writing that exemplify the criteria used to score students' written responses on the June 1990 Grade 9 English Language Arts Achievement Test. Commentary accompanying the students' writing samples in the booklet…

Poetry is a powerful avenue through which students can learn to express their voices and to "write like people." In the special needs classroom, where students traditionally have had difficulty with narrative structure, and therefore have gone unheard, developing voice through poetry becomes especially crucial. Samples of students'…

Designed as a practical reference book that can be useful to readers in any writing situation, this handbook offers guidance for writing assignments across the curriculum as well as help in writing resumes, letters, and scholarship, college, and job applications. The handbook describes the 10 common methods for developing any kind of writing and…

This booklet presents seven complete portfolios (each consisting of four pieces of writing) and selections from seven other successful portfolios submitted by 1992 incoming freshmen to Miami University. The portfolios or selections in the booklet were considered to be truly outstanding among the 465 portfolios submitted in 1992. Authors of the…

Noting that Oregon has been a pioneer in developing assessments which require actual student writing, this booklet includes a collection of student essays and shows how they were evaluated by teachers. The sample essays in the booklet are useful in staff development activities and may also be shared with students, serving as models to help…