The New York City Board of Education's Title I program, "Learning to Read through the Arts," teaches skills in reading through involvement in the arts, builds self-confidence, improves self-image, and adds to the experiences of the participating children. If children are able to read material and apply the information thus acquired to…

Children arrive in classrooms with varied background knowledge, which means that teachers must select instructional methods, materials, and techniques to meet multiple needs. A carefully planned approach that includes direct and explicit instruction--as well as extensive opportunities for reading, writing, speaking, and listening--can help…

In order to document the self-directed, spontaneous growth in literary output of a six-year-old child, her writings during a one month period were collected and compiled. It was discovered that the child used writing to organize knowledge about the environment and the operations of print, to maintain personal relations, to establish impersonal or…

To help students practice and manipulate a newly learned language, games that help the teacher create contexts in which the language is useful and meaningful are presented in this book. The introduction provides answers to questions teachers may have--including why and for whom games are useful--and also offers practical pointers for explaining…

Music can be an effective motivational vehicle for teaching listening skills, literature, oral and nonverbal communication, creative writing, handwriting, spelling, and grammar. One idea for integrating music into the language arts involves the use of song lyrics as reading materials. Since contemporary country music, and its precursor folk music,…

A LANGUAGE-EXPERIENCE PROGRAM INCLUDING SPELLING, LISTENING, READING, WRITING, AND SPEAKING IS DISCUSSED. THE TEACHER HELPS EACH CHILD BECOME INCREASINGLY SENSITIVE TO HIS ENVIRONMENT AND SUCCEED THROUGH A VARIETY OF LANGUAGE EXPERIENCES. TWENTY LANGUAGE EXPERIENCES ARE GROUPED INTO THREE CATEGORIES TO AID THE TEACHER IN SELECTING APPROPRIATE…

The activities described in this publication are based on a language experience approach that involves primary grade children in progressions from experience to art, writing, and reading. The first and longest section presents a model lesson plan for activities in which children fantasize about being balloons and then progress to related movement,…

Based on the belief that language should be the central focus for study in the reading and language arts classroom, this collection presents 10 diverse viewpoints on language study in the middle school and secondary school. The collection is divided into the following areas: studying language through literature and the arts, using writing and…

Based on the belief that the teaching and learning of language are inextricably intertwined, this book addresses the challenge of providing an integrated language arts program in the elementary and middle school level that bridges traditional instruction and thematic, whole language, or literature-based instruction. The book also presents ways to…

To measure the effectiveness of the computer based instructional system designed to develop the writing and reading skills of kindergarten and first grade students, Writing to Read (WTR), which was implemented by three Kettering (Ohio) Elementary Schools in l988 and three more in 1989, was examined in five areas related to the program. Results…

The language experience approach (LEA) has been used successfully with students who are beginning to read in English as a second language. In an LEA lesson the teacher can elicit students' comments on a wordless picture book, transcribe students' sentences, read the resultant story aloud (or have the class read it), and have the story copied.…

THE EFFECTS OF TWO INSTRUCTIONAL APPROACHES, THE COORDINATED, BASAL LANGUAGE ARTS APPROACH AND THE INTEGRATED EXPERIENCE APPROACH TO COMMUNICATION, ON PUPILS' LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT WERE EXAMINED. APPROXIMATELY 600 FIRST-GRADE STUDENTS WERE ASSIGNED RANDOMLY TO THE TWO APPROACHES. APPROXIMATELY 500 PUPILS COMPRISED THE FINAL, TOTAL PUPIL POPULATION…

Undergraduate education students can often discuss the language experience approach intelligently, listing advantages and disadvantages with ease, but express bewilderment when it comes time in a reading practicum class to actually use the approach with a child. A teaching guide can serve as an aid to those students who have previously studied the…

Using the latest research theories, this elementary school curriculum guide was prepared for kindergarten through grade 6 by the teaching staff and curriculum office of the Mehlville (Missouri) School District for teachers of language arts. Methods of instruction included in the guide are language experience approach, writing process, and…

Controversy exists as to the specific approach to use in teaching language arts skills to culturally and linguistically different children who speak non-standard English. Three primary approaches involve eradicating, maintaining, or expanding the home language systems of such children. In the expansion approach, children are taught to use standard…