Presents the Holistic Educational Literacy Process strategy for adult literacy education consisting of the following 10 steps: presenting an advance organizer; reading silently; reading aloud; listening to the passage recorded; listening and taking notes; highlighting important points; networking structures; summarizing the passage; revising the…

Describes how the introduction of information books into a first grade classroom led a "traditional" teacher to provide students with a wider variety of literary experiences and allow students the opportunity for more active involvement in books. Notes that the classroom evolved into a child-centered environment where each child reads and writes…

This practicum sought to increase the opportunities for 17 first-grade students to write for real, human reasons and in natural circumstances. They were to use writing as a natural and acceptable outlet for expression, and to conceive of their writing as an extension of themselves. Each day a name was drawn to take home a stuffed bear, which…

Benchmarks are designed to demystify educational goals and illuminate the nature of good performance for teachers, students, and parents. Since 1987, the Toronto Board of Education has developed over 100 language and mathematics benchmarks at grades 3, 6, and 8, combining observation with holistic evaluation. Instruction, learning, and evaluation…

Children from rural backgrounds often struggle with the unfamiliar language and settings in basal reader selections, but the rich knowledge and experience that a rural child brings to the classroom is rarely reflected there. These papers describe a literature based program developed in the Washington Court House City Schools (Ohio) to teach…

Presents two kindergarten teachers' accounts of the use of the whole language approach to children's learning in class. Describes the reading of a children's book to a public kindergarten class and the subsequent literacy-related activities. (BB)

Maintains that school failure can be prevented if at-risk students are provided with a coordinated set of interventions. Presents recommendations for principals and teachers and describes several successful programs that promote at-risk student learning, including cooperative learning, mentorships, instructional technology, and the whole-language…

The assessment process in whole language classrooms in the Honolulu (Hawaii) School District is described. The development of alternative measures based on actual student performances was a natural outcome of the teachers' training and implementation of a holistic education/whole language program. Multiple and multidimensional assessment emerged…

Reviews a study that used a collaborative action research model to explore ways to integrate music authentically into the curriculum of a particular whole-language first-grade classroom. Presents a more differentiated definition of integration, identifying five types: topical, associated skills, conceptual, higher-level thinking, and pedagogical.…

An inquiry-based curriculum can become the vehicle for bringing students out into the community and bringing the larger world to the classroom. The article describes one Hawaiian teacher's elementary curriculum that encouraged talking, sharing, and collaboration and incorporated reading and writing for real purposes into the curriculum. (SM)