This article outlines the implications for teachers of the findings from a comparative study of students’ editing skills and processes when using word processors and pencils to write. An overview of the editing skills that students can be expected to have at three different year levels is presented.

Ngā Kete Kōrero (The Language Baskets), a national research study commissioned by the Ministry of Māori Development Te Puni Kōkiri in 1993, has provided comprehensive information about the development of appropriate language assessment and teaching resources. It will help teachers to accurately identify levels of language and literacy ...

Taking a practical approach to drama is an effective way of teaching children how to read and understand plays in performance. It may also have a significant contribution to make in helping children write purposefully, and appreciate how language is always open to interpretation. Reprinted from Topic, Issue 25 ...

A study conducted in conjunction with the National Education Monitoring Project examined four different assessment task formats. It found that different formats were appropriate, depending on the type of information the tasks were eliciting from students. A scheme was developed to classify the type of information collected and the assessment ...

In tests on Evaluating Information in Text, overall, females performed better than males. Although students from higher decile schools performed significantly better on average than those in lower decile schools, the full range of scores was represented in all decile groups. Both intermediate and secondary students found differentiating between ...

A 1999 report showed that causes of delays in student achievement were more complex than the teachers had previously thought. One was the low expectations teachers had of the students. In an effort to raise student achievement, Viscount School offered the teachers in-house professional development in literacy, “tailor-made” to the ...

Nga Iwi’s commitment to forming educative partnerships between the school and its community led it to change how it reported to parents on their children’s achievement. Specifically, the school wanted to report on achievement more accurately while ensuring that parents could understand the reports. They also wanted to report the ...

The researchers’ interviews of a sample of staff showed that after three years of using PAT, all staff could provide some examples of how they used the data, but some misunderstanding and reservations remained. Staff who had greater involvement in the analysis of the data were more confident in its ...

The researchers investigated the impact of a literacy intervention on reading and writing and the sustainability of the programme. Data on reading and writing achievement showed that while the latter was at national levels, the former was significantly below. It was concluded that the reading data collected by teachers were ...

This issue of set features case study articles on four South Auckland schools that have, in their different ways, taken up the challenge of significantly raising the literacy achievement levels of their students. In October 1998, Wyatt Creech, then Minister of Education, announced that by 2005 every child turning nine ...