Drawing on sociocultural approaches to literacy and literature on the communal spaces of teaching and learning of Latino/as, I share one Mexican border women's life story and analyze her literacies and ways of knowing in relation to the literacy event of giving "consejo." Using data gathered through individual interviews and…

Describes the related processes of metaphoric production and comprehension as they are represented by students in the five-to-eleven year age range. Offers guidelines for incorporating the exploration of metaphor in elementary school language programs. (HTH)

Examines children's progression in the use of humor in language from taking folktales seriously, to using humor for shock, to using humor to alter social environments. (HTH)

A participant in a British teacher workshop that focused on student talk describes the progress of the group toward defining the types of language they wanted to focus on in the classroom and the group's publication of weekly progress reports. (HTH)

Focuses on the narrative function to show how children can build on another speaker's turns in conversation and can build on their own utterances as they speak. Analyzes children's dialogs and narratives to highlight the primacy of the oral language arts as they are enacted in daily conversation and play. (HTH)

Considers register (factors that vary in situational contexts and produce differences in meaning intent and meaning exchange) variance with its accompanying language transactions during written language events involving children and adults. Illustrates register variance with the writing and drawing of a four-year-old and a first-grader. (HTH)

Outlines some of the problems children encounter while developing communicative competency. Discusses ways to assess an individual child's communicative abilities and the ways that language development research can help teachers enhance those abilities. (HTH)

Describes ERIC resources that present research on children's language usage and development and that suggest activities for the promotion of language development. (ET)

Presents case studies of two first-grade children, examining their writing as a linguistic and social process that involves the child in an exploration of both oral and written language within the social context of the classroom. (HTH)

Presents the opposing viewpoints on grammar study, phonics and whole language instruction, and the role of information in English language arts. (SRT)

The article examines third graders who use reading, speaking, writing, gestures, and visual representation strategically in their inquiry research and to share what they learn. Examples of their speaking, writing and drawing shows their developing skill in choosing semiotic meaning-making systems appropriately for the purpose of developing their…