Second language learners face countless obstacles in the classroom, including communication and comprehension limitations and difficulty building relationships with peers. Many teachers struggle to build an inclusive classroom environment and ensure all students, especially those with linguistic and other learning disadvantages, are learning. This…

Using communicative activities with learners from diverse cultures can create excitement and empathy while promoting the acquisition of English. This article offers ESL/EFL activities that foster interpersonal tolerance among students who have experienced intergroup conflict. The activities are based on the idea that there are four levels of…

Describes how using a flashlight to read language experience chart stories can provide a concrete way to build a foundation for many emergent reader concepts, such as directionality. (SR)

Recounted by the teacher are psychological and academic benefits realized by a class of low achieving children when they dictated and illustrated booklets and read them to other classes. (DB)

Suggests using word banks as a class activity in any reading instruction or language arts program. (RB)

Use of direct experiences for children to foster learning and language development is encouraged. Classroom materials and study trips are suggested. (DR)

Describes a spur-of-the-moment curriculum development activity involving primary-school students researching the "real" Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo behind the names of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Notes that the products of the research were shared during a classroom pizza party. (RS)

Describes how to use word processing with first graders in lessons exploring oral and written language via the computer. Suggests ways to use the language experience approach in whole-class as well as small-group instruction. (SR)

Presents the ideas of four elementary school classroom teachers with regard to reading instruction. Includes "An Invitation to Reading Fluency,""Reading Chapter Books for Fun,""Easing the K-1 Transition through Language Experiences," and "A Meeting of Minds: Teaching Using Biographies." (PRA)

Discusses ways teachers can create a supportive literacy environment in the classroom for young children. Considers activities that encourage children's language use, and recommends creating an unhurried atmosphere, responding to cultural differences, and including a mix of planned and child-initiated activities. (JPB)

Publishing children's written work in the elementary classroom enables children to see themselves as creators of ideas, as producers of language, and as functioning members of the language community. This paper suggests many forms in which children's writings may be published. Step-by-step explanations and accompanying illustrations tell how to…

The practicum reported in this paper addressed the high percentage of children receiving below average grades in an average first grade reading comprehension class by implementing an integrated approach to reading. Various screening devices, a survey of kindergarten teachers, the Dolch Basic Sight Word Test, the Analytical Reading Inventory (Woods…

After analyzing the leading theories on reading instruction and noting their advantages and limitations, this updated book presents a specific combined approach to reading instruction which draws on the proved strengths of older methods while avoiding their failures. This approach centers around training in effective use of the teacher-pupil…

Pacey, a likable and literate eighth-grader, saw school as "a place that kills your reading." With this alarming condemnation in mind, the author uses literacy narrative--a short, concise, digital video in which students meld still images, motion, print text, and soundtrack (both narration and music) in communicating ideas/insights/discoveries…