Recommends a photo essay project as a catalyst for accelerated language learning and as a method of integrating mainstream students into a regular class activity. Divides the project into three stages: a planning stage, an acting out and picture taking stage, and a caption writing stage. (AEA)

Recommends a variant of desktop publishing for classroom publishing of newsletters, school newspapers, and class-compiled and individually authored books, taking writing beyond traditional classroom contexts with teacher as sole audience. Promotes cut-and-paste production using whatever computers and software are available as expedient and…

Discusses how a teacher and university researcher brought to their students their concerns that students' portfolios were not "academic" enough. Notes that the teacher and researcher recognized the potential of literacy portfolios for strengthening a child's capacity to narrate the events of her life with authority and to tie these events to the…

Discusses an integrative study of a seventh grade language arts class in which students were given the opportunity and the challenge of designing their own course of study. Describes designing the unit, getting started, exploring death and dying, class discussions and journal writing, literature groups, and individual papers. (RS)