A study examined the effectiveness of a project to increase reading readiness skills. The targeted population consisted of kindergarten students in a growing middle class community located in northern Illinois. The problems of lack of reading readiness were documented through teacher observation and district assessment tools. Analysis of probable…

This edition of "NAEPfacts" discusses the frequency with which process-oriented activities are taught in United States schools, and the writing performance of students whose teachers emphasize these activities. Data were drawn from the 1992 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in Writing, which was administered to a…

A study examined how 8 writers, both successful and less successful (4 of each), constructed their interpretations of teachers' written comments and what factors influenced their readings of teachers' comments. Subjects, 8 students enrolled in the first semester writing course at Olivet Nazarene University, a small private liberal arts…

A study examined the impact of written feedback on goals and self-efficacy, and the impact of goals and self-efficacy on changes in writing performance. Subjects were 137 students in a second-semester freshman-level college English composition class and 5 second-semester graduate assistant teachers. Consistent with social learning theory, results…

A practicum addressed the problem that the traditional Chapter 1 program of a school district had not been effective in promoting literacy growth. The students repeatedly read the same stories with equal lack of success each time. They were not motivated to read or write because the purpose was irrelevant and failure was probable. The strategy…

Writing portfolios, which provide samples of a student's writing over a period of time, are an excellent vehicle for giving faculty a new resource for teaching students self assessment. Since the portfolios include concrete evidence of a variety of writing assignments, students also learn that writing is a developmental process. This development…

This study examined the relative effects of the self-evaluation process on written composition skills development among learning-disabled junior high students. It specifically evaluated the use of a structured self-evaluation process on the quality of short compositions. Experimental subjects (N=38) were taught the use of a self-evaluation…

Two studies examined the effectiveness of the Multicultural Reading and Thinking Program (McRAT), in which teachers infuse higher-order thinking strategies and performance-based assessment into classroom instruction. Four broad categories of thinking skills are included: analysis, comparison, inference/interpretation, and evaluation. In the first…

A study investigated the organizational processes accessed during the composing process by elementary student writers whose teachers had been instructed by the Project READ/Inquiring School Initiative at the University of Pittsburgh in helping children develop organizational structures. Subjects were 28 fourth-grade students in the experimental…

This study evaluated a behavioral teaching strategy for teaching the use of compound predicates in writing to three academically deficient, behaviorally disordered boys (ages 9 to 13). The strategy attempted to affect the number of compound predicates per T-unit (minimal terminable unit) per 20-minute writing session using a combination of…

A review of research demonstrates that both oral and written language continue to develop through adulthood. Studies show that such skills as the abilities to interpret metacognitive verbs, to make word associations, and to understand syntax improve with age. Adolescents and adults use language that solidifies them with their peer group.…

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 report presents evaluation information concerning a 1993 New York City Chapter 1 summer program's four components: Project Welcome Plus/Study Skills in Communication Arts (PWP/CA); the programs Basic Skills Academy/Comprehensive Competencies program and Auxiliary Service for High Schools Basic Skills; Basic Reading; and Project YOU. These…

A study investigated whether statistically significant differences in reading achievement developed after an exposure to the Writing to Read (WTR) program. Subjects were 15 third-grade students from a 100% minority population elementary school on Chicago's west side who were exposed to the Writing to Read program and 15 students from the same…

Generally speaking English department faculty respond very differently when reading freshman writing than when reading most other kinds of writing. Mina Shaughnessy has pointed out that "ordinary readers" try to understand what they are reading, but the writing teacher, "like a lawyer examining a client's document for all possible ambiguities and…