Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This thesis discusses the use of film in the composition classroom. It is divided into four chapters: The Argument, The Audience, Film as a Pedagogical Tool, and The Future. Chapter One (the Argument) discusses the different ideas about using media in the classroom, and how it is good practice to do so. New ideas on teaching from education expert Ken Bain (What the Best College Teachers Do) are presented. Bain suggests that as long as the instructor is confident in his or her subject, any innovative thing they do in class is all right. Malcolm Gladwell’s ideas from The Tipping Point are applied to the classroom: the Law of the Few, Connectors, Mavens, Salesmen, the Stickiness Factor, and the Power of Context. Presentations couched within a Gladwell frame can prove to be extraordinarily effective. Chapter Two (the Audience) analyzes the Millennial students, and discusses their views on learning and media. These students see learning as a commodity and view modern media with a bit of contempt. Therefore, to use media in the classroom the instructor must be innovative. Chapter Three (Film as a Pedagogical Tool) examines various different applications of film use in the classroom. It also looks in depth at using David Mamet’s films in the classroom, especially Glengarry Glen Ross, The Edge, and The Verdict, which use classical structure to persuade and argue. Chapter Four (The Future) looks at the work of Howard Gardner and his theory five minds: the Disciplined Mind, the Synthesizing Mind, the Creative Mind, the Respectful Mind, and the Ethical Mind and how we must prepare to teach to them all. In the conclusion I posit that the students of today and the students of tomorrow will require new and innovative techniques to be taught effectively, and that film is versatile and flexible enough to do it.

The purpose of this study was to describe how sixth-grade students talk about their writing and their writing portfolios in a natural setting. A qualitative approach was used in the study. Through interviews, classroom observations, and analysis of site artifacts, I studied four female sixth graders’ talk in the context of a writing workshop for eighteen weeks. Assuming the role of limited participant observer, I spent a minimum of six to eight hours each week in the classroom observing and interviewing the informants during the second semester of the 1993-1994 school year. The primary questions I addressed were (a) How do sixth graders talk about their writing? and (b) How does writing fit into the informants’ personal literacy configurations? I codified all data in order to analyze how students talked about their portfolios. Two themes of talk emerged in this analysis: textual responses--responses to content, language, perspective, and mechanics; and affective responses--the role of association, imagination, accomplishment, singularity, effort, fantasy/realism, and entertainment value in their writing. Results revealed that the research participants applied a wide array of criteria-- both textual and nontextual in nature--to their writing and their writing portfolios. These criteria did not increase Significantly in number; however, students’ abilities to articulate the criteria developed. In addition, results indicate the social nature of writing. Five complex, interactive, and recursive factors highly influenced the manner in which students talked about their work: students’ prior writing experiences, shared trust, ownership and responsibility, classroom activities, and the opportunity to reflect. Results also suggest that students have the ability to assess their own writing and, therefore, should participate in self-assessment and in the establishment of a common composition vocabulary. Furthermore, the study reveals that portfolios encourage ownership and responsibility and aid Students in seeing themselves as writers. Finally, portfolios can be powerful reflective tools that may help many students in articulating their thoughts about their writing and in making revisions to their pieces. Students who do not see revision as an essential part of writing, however, may reap few benefits from portfolio assessment. / Ph. D.

No description available.

This project researcher designed, implemented and collected data on an integrated approach to writing instruction for her third grade students in the Etiwanda School District. The literature review showed the importance of teaching students the purpose for writing, the traits of writing and the process of writing. Research showed the effectiveness of teaching students the six traits of writing and the writing process as indicated by student writing achievement scores.

The purpose of this study was to compare the effects on student writing of two separate approaches to teaching grammar - one traditional, and one non-traditional. Over the course of four weeks, the writing abilities of two high school English classes, similar in composition and academic skill, were compared.

by Wong Tai Yuen. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 112-128). / Acknowledgements --- p.i / Abstract --- p.iii / Contents --- p.v / List of Tables --- p.ix / List of Figures --- p.x / Chapter Chapter I --- Introduction / Chapter 1.1 --- The Problem --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Statement of the Problem --- p.7 / Chapter 1.3 --- Hypotheses --- p.7 / Chapter 1.4 --- Limitations --- p.9 / Chapter 1.5 --- Definitions of Terms --- p.10 / Chapter 1.5.1 --- Text / Chapter 1.5.2 --- Discourse / Chapter 1.5.3 --- Texture / Chapter 1.5.4 --- Context of Situation / Chapter 1.5.5 --- Cohesion / Chapter 1.5.6 --- Cohesive Ties / Chapter 1.5.7 --- Cohesive Harmony / Chapter 1.5.8 --- Coherence / Chapter 1.5.9 --- T-unit / Chapter 1.5.10 --- Holistic Rating / Chapter 1.6 --- Significance of the Study --- p.16 / Chapter Chapter II --- Review of the Literature / Chapter 2.1 --- "Language, Context and Text" --- p.18 / Chapter 2.2 --- Relationship of the Text to its Context of Situation --- p.18 / Chapter 2.3 --- Cohesion --- p.20 / Chapter 2.4 --- Coherence --- p.21 / Chapter 2.5 --- Cohesion and Coherence --- p.23 / Chapter 2.6 --- Cohesion and Coherence as Defined in this Study --- p.26 / Chapter 2.7 --- "Cohesion, Coherence and Reading Comprehension" --- p.27 / Chapter 2.8 --- "Cohesion, Coherence and Writing" --- p.29 / Chapter 2.9 --- The Connections between Reading and Writing --- p.30 / Chapter 2.10 --- Cohesive Ties --- p.33 / Chapter 2.11 --- How Cohesion Works --- p.41 / Chapter 2.11.1 --- Cohesive Devices as Signals / Chapter 2.11.2 --- How Cohesive Devices Help to Integrate Text / Chapter 2.11.3 --- Cohesion and Processing Efficiency / Chapter 2.11.4 --- The Given-New Contract / Chapter 2.12 --- Measuring Cohesion --- p.44 / Chapter 2.13 --- Measuring Coherence --- p.46 / Chapter 2.14 --- How Cohesion and Coherence Are Measured in this Study --- p.47 / Chapter Chapter III --- Procedure and Design of the Study / Chapter 3.1 --- Sampling --- p.49 / Chapter 3.2 --- Design of the Scale to Measure Students' Control over the Use of Cohesive Devices in Writing --- p.51 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- The Writing Test / Chapter 3.2.2 --- Measure of Cohesion / Chapter 3.2.3 --- Cohesive Errors / Chapter 3.2.4 --- Measure of Coherence / Chapter 3.3 --- Design of the Scale to Measure Students' Ability to Understand and Interpret Text --- p.68 / Chapter 3.4 --- Statistical Design --- p.71 / Chapter Chapter IV --- Results and Discussion / Chapter 4.1 --- Linguistic Competence of the Subjects --- p.73 / Chapter 4.2 --- Analysis of the Reading Test --- p.74 / Chapter 4.3 --- Analysis of the Written Test --- p.78 / Chapter 4.3.1 --- Frequency Count of Cohesive Features / Chapter 4.3.2 --- Holistic Rating Scores / Chapter 4.4 --- Multiple Regression Analysis --- p.82 / Chapter 4.4.1 --- Line of Regression / Chapter 4.4.2 --- Test of Multicol1inearity / Chapter 4.4.3 --- Test of Autocorrelation / Chapter 4.5 --- Discussion of the Findings of the Multiple Regression Analysis --- p.85 / Chapter Chapter V --- Conclusions and Implications / Chapter 5.1 --- Summing up --- p.98 / Chapter 5.2 --- Further Discussion: Limitations and Possibilities --- p.102 / Chapter 5.3 --- Implications for Instruction --- p.108 / Bibliography --- p.112 / Appendices --- p.129 / Chapter Appendix A --- Reading Test / Chapter Appendix B --- Writing Test

本 研究主要探討句法意識在香港兒童篇章閱讀理解及篇章寫作中的作用，包括三个研究。研究一主要探討句法意識是否能夠獨立預測香港兒童的篇章閱讀理解能力。 受試者為89名母語為粤語的香港五年級兒童。實驗中，受試者接受一系列認知及語言相關的個別測試。主要包括智力測驗、中文篇章閱讀理解測驗、語音意識測 驗、語素意識測驗、語義知識測驗、句法意識測驗、記憶能力測驗及詞彙能力測驗。相關分析表明兩種句法意識測驗顯著與兒童中文閱讀理解能力相關。回歸分析表明即使在控制了兒童在智力水平，語音意識，語義意識，語素意識，詞彙能力及工作記憶能力的差异的情況下，句法意識，尤其是連詞應能力，仍能夠顯著地預測兒 童在中文篇章理解的成绩。 / 研究二應用追踪研究探討句法意識在中文閱讀中的重要作用及中文篇章理解與句法意識是否是雙向相關。即兒童在低一年級的句法意識是否可以用來預測兒童在高一年的篇章閱讀理解成績及兒童在低一年級的阅读理解成績是否可以用來預測兒童在高一年級的句法能力。相關分析表明兒童在五年級的句法能力顯著與兒童六年 級的閱讀理解能力相關，五年级的阅读理解能力显著与儿童六年级的句法能力相关。回歸分析表明，兒童在五年級的句法能力能夠顯著預測兒童在六年級的篇章閱讀 理解成绩。路徑分析表明兒童的句法能力與篇章閱讀理解能力是相互影響的關係。即兒童的句法能力可以用來預測兒童的篇章閱讀理解成绩， 同時兒童的篇章閱讀理解成绩同樣可以用來測兒童的句法能力。 / 研究三主要探討句法意識在兒童篇章寫作中的重要作用。研究三主要採用追踪研究的方法。受试者与测量任务同研究二相同，这些儿童同时接受了写作能力测验。 句法任务包括句法判断和连词填写任务。同时，我们还采用了句 / 法错误分析的方法来探讨儿童写作中句法能力的发展。 相關分析表明兩種句法能力測驗顯著與兒童的寫作能力相關。回歸分析表明，兒童的 句法能力是兒童寫作能力的一個顯著预测因子。路徑分析表明兒童的句法能力與兒童的寫作能力是相互影響的關係。即兒童的句法能力可以用來預測兒童的寫作能 力， 同時兒童的寫作能力同樣可以用來測兒童的句法能力。 句法錯誤分析表明兒童在語序，詞性，成份完整性及標點符號的使用上表現出規律性的語法錯誤。本研究揭示了句法能力在兒童篇章閱讀理解及篇章寫作中的重要作用， 為中文篇章閱讀及篇章写作的困難兒童的診斷提供了重要參考。 / This research aimed to explore the role of syntactic awareness in text reading comprehension and writing composition in Hong Kong Chinese children. Three studies were included. In Study 1, the question of whether syntactic awareness uniquely correlated with text reading comprehension in Hong Kong Chinese fifth graders was examined. A total of 89 fifth graders from two primary schools were recruited (45 boys, and 44 girls, mean age = 9.15 years, SD = .43). These children were administered a set of cognitive and linguistic measures including two tasks on syntactic awareness, i.e. syntactic judgment/correction task and conjunction cloze task. The results of Study1 indicated that syntactic skills, especially knowledge of conjunctive word usage, accounted for unique variance in text reading comprehension in Chinese children even when age, nonverbal IQ, phonological awareness, morphological awareness, semantic knowledge, vocabulary knowledge, morhosyntactic knowledge and working memory as well as word reading were statistically controlled. / The purpose of Study 2 was twofold. First, it aimed to investigate the longitudinal predictive effect of syntactic awareness on text reading comprehension in Hong Kong Chinese children. Second, the bidirectional relationship between syntactic awareness and text reading comprehension was explored. A total of 129 children (50 boys and 79 girls), from a ten-year longitudinal study, were sampled. They were tested on a set of cognitive and linguistic measures including the same two syntactic tasks used as those in Study1. Results showed that syntactic awareness was longitudinally predictive of text reading comprehension, even when the contributions of children’s age, nonverbal and verbal abilities, phonological awareness, and morphological awareness were taken into account. In addition, children’s early reading comprehension was significantly correlated with their growth in syntactic awareness, suggesting a bidirectional relationship between syntactic awareness and reading comprehension. / In Study 3, the relationship between syntactic awareness and writing composition was examined in Hong Kong Chinese children. The participants and measures were the same as those in Study 2. In addition, those children were administered a writing composition task both at age 11 and 12. Results revealed that syntactic awareness was significantly predictive of children’s writing, controlling for the contribution of age, nonverbal and verbal abilities, phonological awareness and morphological awareness. Children’s performance in early writing compositions was also significantly associated with their later syntactic skills. This may suggest a reciprocal relationship between syntactic awareness and writing. In addition, syntactic error analyses revealed that children made certain syntactic errors in sentence construction and these errors were not random. / Findings in this study not only help us unravel the relations between syntactic awareness and reading comprehension and writing composition, contributing to a fuller understanding of the foundation of Chinese reading comprehension and writing composition, but also provide a potentially useful direction for the diagnosis of reading and writing difficulties for Chinese children. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Tong, Xiuhong. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 127-149). / Abstract also in Chinese; appendixes in Chinese. / Acknowledgements --- p.II / Abstract (in English) --- p.IV / Abstract (in Chinese) --- p.VII / List of Tables --- p.X / List of Figures --- p.XII / Chapter CHAPTER ONE: --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter CHATPER TWO: --- SYNTACTIC AWARENESS AND READING --- p.17 / Syntactic Awareness Reading in Readers of Alphabetic Languages --- p.18 / Syntactic Awareness in Chinese Children’s Reading --- p.25 / Chapter CHAPTER THREE: --- SYNTACTIC AWARENESS AND WRITING COMPOSITION --- p.31 / Model of Writing --- p.32 / Syntax and Writing in Alphabetic Languages --- p.35 / Syntax and writing in Chinese children --- p.39 / Chapter CHAPTER FOUR: --- THE PRESENT STUDY --- p.42 / Study 1 --- p.46 / Study 2 --- p.62 / Study 3 --- p.78 / Chapter CHAPTER FIVE: --- DISCUSSION & CONCLUSION --- p.103 / REFERENCES --- p.127 / APPENDIX --- p.150

Thesis (doctoral)--Hong Kong Polytechnic University, 2005.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Wollongong, 2005. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references: leaf 288-310.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, March, 2010. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references.