The University of the Balearic Islands (Spain) has continued in recent years to extend and broaden its efforts in the revitalization of its undergraduate education program. The University's location (it covers three different islands) makes it a particularly appropriate testbed for examining the application of information technologies to…

This book provides a set of principles and analytical methods that are based on research findings and are designed to be adapted to different assessment scenarios, thus enabling instructors to construct their own assessment methods. Part 1 covers the underlying principles of assessment, examining its purposes, assessment criteria, and the nature…

This document presents a curriculum (based on the author's own experiences listening to music) that aims to get children to become aware of themselves by having them write down their thoughts and feelings (their "contemplations") after listening to music or in response to famous quotations. The document discusses how the curriculum was…

Parents can help their children master the skills needed to become good writers. While preschool pupils, in most cases, cannot do their own writing, the parents can: ask their children for ideas to include in letters to friends or relatives; write down, and then read back, ideas dictated by the child; read interesting library books to their…

This booklet contains a collection of essays that were written by teenage mothers participating in a writing project in the Rochester City School District and who share their feelings about themselves and their pregnancies. Their writings deal with parenthood at an early age and all of the repercussions that follow such a choice. The booklet also…

This sampler discusses California's English-language arts assessment program and presents examples of high school reading assessments, writing assessments, and writing prompts. The first section of the sampler takes an integrated look at the California's new English-language arts assessment. The second section presents the scoring guide for…

This sampler discusses California's English-language arts assessment program and presents examples of elementary school reading assessments, writing assessments, and writing prompts. The first section of the sampler takes an integrated look at the changes which make up the new English-language arts assessment. The second section presents the…

Reorganized and revised, the second edition of this book provides the latest theoretical and practical materials that instructors across the disciplines will need to help students build strong writing skills. It offers suggestions about how to develop effective writing assignments; and it evaluates various methods of assessing student writing,…

A survey was administered to 10th-grade regular biology students to diagnose the cause for low achievement on chapter tests. Survey results verified teacher suspicion that students did not read textbook assignments when designated as homework and, as a consequence, this deficiency contributed to low achievement scores. A treatment included…

This occasional paper views homework as an opportunity to exploit the potential of outside resources and environments to complement in-school learning opportunities. Out-of-school learning opportunities are considered in the context of principles for planning and implementing learning activities. These principles involve: (1) goal relevance,…

Written by middle school, high school, and college writing teachers, the 30 lesson plans collected in this book represent a mix of computer-based units for teaching writing. They cover many types of writing from journalism to literary essays, fiction, and poetry, and many aspects of the writing process, from brainstorming for ideas to prewriting…

A college level, one-unit library research skills course is required of all students as part of a general education program at the State University College at Plattsburgh, New York. The course emphasizes the presentation of learning experiences within the context of two conceptual structures: principles that underlie information access systems,…

An overview of a program which coordinates ninth-grade academic English and world history courses is presented along with teaching material for the courses. The classes are taught separately, but the subject matter and major assignments are coordinated by historical period. Teaching materials include: goals and objectives of the program, 13 ideas…

A study explored whether the use of a study guide would improve students' comprehension of content area material. Two groups of students in an eighth grade social studies class were involved: students in the control group received the usual instruction--the chapter was read orally and discussed in class--while students in the experimental sample…

While vocabulary is the concern of beginning students of English as a second language (ESL) and essays are the focus of advanced students, syntax is the domain of the intermediate course, with an emphasis on sentence combining. One method divides the course into four segments: (1) using, varying, and rearranging connectors; (2) ordering thoughts…