Middle School Journal


Book Description










Mentor Texts


Book Description

It's been a decade since Lynne Dorfman and Rose Cappelli wrote the first edition of Mentor Texts and helped teachers across the country make the most of high-quality children's literature in their writing instruction. In the second edition of this important book Lynne and Rose show teachers how to help students become confident, accomplished writers by using literature as their foundation. The second edition includes brand-new "Your Turn Lessons," built around the gradual release of responsibility model, offering suggestions for demonstrations and shared or guided writing. Reflection is emphasized as a necessary component to understanding why mentor authors chose certain strategies, literary devices, sentence structures, and words. Lynne and Rose offer new children's book titles in each chapter and in a carefully curated and annotated Treasure Chest. At the end of each chapter a "Think About It--Talk About It--Write About It" section invites reflection and conversation with colleagues. The book is organized around the characteristics of good writing--focus, content, organization, style, and conventions. Rose and Lynne write in a friendly and conversational style, employing numerous anecdotes to help teachers visualize the process, and offer strategies that can be immediately implemented in the classroom. This practical resource demonstrates the power of learning to read like writers.




Electronic Communication Across the Curriculum


Book Description

This collection of 24 essays explores what happens when proponents of writing across the curriculum (WAC) use the latest computer-mediated tools and techniques--including e-mail, asynchronous learning networks, MOOs, and the World Wide Web--to expand and enrich their teaching practices, especially the teaching of writing. Essays and their authors are: (1) "Using Computers to Expand the Role of Writing Centers" (Muriel Harris); (2) "Writing across the Curriculum Encounters Asynchronous Learning Networks" (Gail E. Hawisher and Michael A. Pemberton); (3) "Building a Writing-Intensive Multimedia Curriculum" (Mary E. Hocks and Daniele Bascelli); (4) "Communication across the Curriculum and Institutional Culture" (Mike Palmquist; Kate Kiefer; Donald E. Zimmerman); (5) "Creating a Community of Teachers and Tutors" (Joe Essid and Dona J. Hickey); (6) "From Case to Virtual Case: A Journey in Experiential Learning" (Peter M. Saunders); (7) "Composing Human-Computer Interfaces across the Curriculum in Engineering Schools" (Stuart A. Selber and Bill Karis); (8) "InterQuest: Designing a Communication-Intensive Web-Based Course" (Scott A. Chadwick and Jon Dorbolo); (9) "Teacher Training: A Blueprint for Action Using the World Wide Web" (Todd Taylor); (10) "Accommodation and Resistance on (the Color) Line: Black Writers Meet White Artists on the Internet" (Teresa M. Redd); (11) "International E-mail Debate" (Linda K. Shamoon); (12) "E-mail in an Interdisciplinary Context" (Dennis A. Lynch); (13) "Creativity, Collaboration, and Computers" (Margaret Portillo and Gail Summerskill Cummins); (14) "COllaboratory: MOOs, Museums, and Mentors" (Margit Misangyi Watts and Michael Bertsch); (15) "Weaving Guilford's Web" (Michael B. Strickland and Robert M. Whitnell); (16) "Pig Tales: Literature inside the Pen of Electronic Writing" (Katherine M. Fischer); (17) "E-Journals: Writing to Learn in the Literature Classroom" (Paula Gillespie); (18) "E-mailing Biology: Facing the Biochallenge" (Deborah M. Langsam and Kathleen Blake Yancey); (19) "Computer-Supported Collaboration in an Accounting Class" (Carol F. Venable and Gretchen N. Vik); (20) "Electronic Tools to Redesign a Marketing Course" (Randall S. Hansen); (21) Network Discussions for Teaching Western Civilization" (Maryanne Felter and Daniel F. Schultz); (22) "Math Learning through Electronic Journaling" (Robert Wolfe); (23) "Electronic Communities in Philosophy Classrooms" (Gary L. Hardcastle and Valerie Gray Hardcastle); and (24) "Electronic Conferencing in an Interdisciplinary Humanities Course" (Mary Ann Krajnik Crawford; Kathleen Geissler; M. Rini Hughes; Jeffrey Miller). A glossary and an index are included. (NKA)




Language Connections


Book Description

Intended for use by college and university educators, this book contains theoretical ideas and practical activities designed to enhance and promote writing across the curriculum programs. Topics discussed in the 12 major chapters are (1) conceptual frameworks of the cross writing program; (2) journal writing across the curriculum; (3) writing and problem solving; (4) assigning and evaluating transactional writing; (5) audience and purpose in writing; (6) the poetic function of language; (7) using narration to shape experience; (8) readers and expressive language; (9) what every educator should know about reading research; (10) reconciling readers and texts; (11) peer critiques, teacher student conferences, and essay evaluation as a means of responding to student writing; and (12) the role of the writing laboratory. A concluding chapter provides a select bibliography on language and learning across the curriculum. (FL)