Describes six projects conducted in a language arts classroom using a whole-language approach. Notes how students responded with eagerness, responsibility, and success. (SR)

Describes the ways key issues in whole-language implementation were handled in Tennessee's pilot program. Offers a framework for encouraging teachers to look closely at the advantages of whole language without squeezing them between a rock and a hard place. (RS)

Describes the experience of a college teacher teaching, for the first time, an introduction to literature course with a whole-language approach. Describes how she abandoned her position as imparter-of-knowledge and as authority, and joined the students as one of many readers and writers. Discusses how class activities were structured and notes…

Explains how a teacher came to develop her own version of the whole language approach through her experimentation with remedial students in the 1970s. Makes a case for student research and inquiry into issues that matter to them personally, in lieu of traditional research of classic writers. (TB)

This four-part paper presents aspects of a curriculum developed to counter the violent image of heroes in the media by presenting children with role models of men and women who are peacemakers. The paper's first section presents an overview and rationale of the program, stating that: (1) it is an infusion curriculum (not requiring additional…

An elementary school located in a predominantly black neighborhood on the south side of Chicago decided it was time to restructure the curriculum (scores lagged behind the national average and interest in reading and writing had waned). The principal, parents, and teachers were given extra encouragement to use the process of team building, shared…

Since 1987, the school district of West Allis-West Milwaukee (Wisconsin) has reviewed and revised its elementary reading program based on the philosophy that spoken, read, and written language must flow naturally from the child, be used in meaningful ways to communicate real needs, and involve tradebooks. Numerous inservice presentations and…

The personnel director of a local industry requested reading help from Central Missouri State University for several employees. After several meetings, a workplace literacy program that used the whole language approach supplemented by direct instruction in word recognition skills was developed. Two types of tests were written. One, a vocabulary…

This paper explores inquiry cycles as an innovative curricular framework in whole language foreign language classes. Whole language is an educational philosophy that advocates and espouses student-centered, activity-based learning. The inquiry cycle is a holistic method of teaching based on a question or set of questions that students themselves…

Discusses a whole-language approach to teaching guided reading to deaf students. Each morning, a written letter, using vocabulary and syntax in accordance with students' reading ability, previews the day's events. With teacher guidance, students explore their reading skills in groups to encourage application of reading strategies in a natural…

Conveys the power of children's questions and highlights the process of questioning in a whole-language classroom. Suggests that the role of questions in the classroom talk demonstrated to the teacher the connections and relationships between discourse content and discourse structure. (RS)

Explores the essence of whole language and the change process in moving toward a whole-language orientation. Discusses oversimplifying complexities, moving beyond a focus on practice, whole-language staff development, and concerns for the future in the context of a school district's move toward whole language. (SR)

Examines a whole language "school" run by 14-year-old Bryan Sans of New Rochelle, New York, describing the after-school and weekend activities that he organized for his younger siblings and neighborhood children. (MDM)

Describes a writing program in a first-grade classroom in a primarily low-socioeconomic, urban Appalachian region. Notes that the program aims at helping children become writers and to: (1) teach the concept of writing as communication; (2) learn about children's strengths and needs through observations and writing samples and teach accordingly;…

Discusses Guam's unique multicultural student and teacher population. Describes two classroom language arts activities (the method of taped repeated reading and "write around") that have met with success and continue to gain momentum in Guam's classrooms. (RS)