In a virtual space between nations, children can come together to learn about and appreciate each other's culture--and their own. As the Co-Executive Director of Blue Planet Writers' Room, a nonprofit writing center in West Palm Beach, Florida, the author was one of the creators of an international collaboration through which they taught…

This article describes an effort to create a teacher learning community in which university and local school teachers worked together to improve the teaching of writing at elementary and secondary levels. I describe how a university's National Writing Project (NWP) engaged in developing a cadre of selected teachers to share understandings about…

Given the increasing pressures of high-stakes accountability associated with state mandates and No Child Left Behind (U.S. Department of Education, 2002), linking teacher preparation within professional development schools to the goal of school improvement has become essential. This article illustrates the University of Florida's efforts to…

A practicum was developed and implemented to offer adolescent home schoolers a peer group academic workshop setting in which they would improve their writing prowess and social skills. The objectives for the workshop were for 10 of the 13 targeted eighth-grade students in a private home-schooling program in central Florida to participate in class…

Shares examples from Florida elementary schools that show what happens when librarians and teachers collaborate in language arts curriculum and instruction. Outlines practices that enhance the development of selecting books and using libraries. (MG)

A program was developed and implemented for use with college freshmen at a community college in southeast Florida whose entrance examination scores fell below the acceptable range for admission into a regular English classroom. These students lacked an adequate background in basic English language skills, had an insufficient understanding of the…