Describes how a college professor incorporates "commonplace books" into his courses, with reading and writing the focal practices in curriculum studies classrooms. He defines commonplace books as collecting places for various writings related to the courses. The books represent fragments of a variety of experiences in a variety of…

The author has been teaching Introduction to Sociology for several years, and each semester new students bring their own perspectives to the study of sociology, making the content fresh and new. In order to help students understand sociological concepts in more experiential ways and to give them a glimpse into a culture that may be different from…

One of the author's first assessment experiences at California State University, Sacramento, began when she was assigned to teach a graduate-level program evaluation research course in the Division of Criminal Justice. The chair of the assessment committee and the division chair approached her with the idea of conducting an assessment of the…

When students take their first upper division mathematics course after an introduction to proof course, they are often overwhelmed by the prospect of writing in a mathematics course. In mathematics, unlike other disciplines, students are very seldom asked to respond via writing to a reading assignment, to write an essay about a topic they have…

Background: This study involved a bicoastal project between four composition classes, two in California and two in Pennsylvania. The focus was on how students read, write, and converse about ethnic and spiritual distinctiveness and the role of writing in identity development. Purpose: The researchers exercised a variety of methods (diverse…

Theme study is in-depth research on a topic, issue, person, or content-area idea, in which reading and writing are used as tools for learning. Educational benefits of theme study include motivation, individualization, explorations of relationships, and the encouragement of a lifelong-learning attitude. Based on the premise that theme study is more…

A classroom field experiment was conducted on the effects of preparation homework and practice homework on student achievement in a fifth-grade social studies class, when used in conjunction with cooperative learning. The study investigated whether cooperative learning with or without preparation or practice homework produces greater student…

The reading exercises in this workbook cover the general areas of basic phonics; word structure (including compound words, base words, prefixes and suffixes, contractions, possessives, and syllables); vocabulary (including word recognition, rhyming words, and word meaning); study skills (including following directions, alphabetizing, and reading a…

The reading exercises in this workbook cover the general areas of basic phonics; word structure (including compound words, base words, prefixes and suffixes, contractions, possessives, and syllables); vocabulary (including word recognition, word meaning, and rhyming words); study skills (including following directions, alphabetizing, and reading a…

The reading exercises in this workbook cover the general areas of basic phonics; word structure (including compound words, prefixes, contractions, possessives, syllabication, word meaning, similes, vocabulary in content areas, analogies, and idioms); study skills (including dictionary skills, using an encyclopedia and index, reading a map, reading…

In order to minimize the dread which students and teachers alike often feel toward freshman composition courses, it is important to involve students in reading and writing assignments which are of interest and importance to them. Autobiography, as a subject for study and a focus for writing, can be a great motivator and an expediter of the…

A study was made in Wisconsin of knowledge gains by participants in two Cooperative Extension Service educational activities (soil management and cooking for many) organized and presented by the in-depth teaching approach, and of selected factors thought to have an effect on the amount of knowledge gained. Gains were categorized as low (1%-49%…

Discusses collaboration between secondary school teacher-librarians and English teachers to promote literacy and reading through choice book units, where students can choose from a selection of suggested titles. Topics include nonfiction books; advantages for low-ability readers; audio books; and Teachers as Readers book discussion groups. (LRW)

This study investigated the effects of autobiographical writing before reading on ninth graders' discussion and understanding of two short stories. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of audiotaped class discussion revealed that students who had written about relevant personal experience before reading were more substantively engaged in…

Presents an eighth-grade classroom where students collaborated with the teacher to decide how to designate time spent on reading, creative writing, and journal writing. Discusses needs assessment, student suggestions, choosing the solution, and implementation. A sidebar outlines student-determined writers' workshop, readers' workshop, and…