Describes and provides examples of how storytelling can help develop children's language ability. Argues that the goal is not to teach children language but to create an environment that will allow language learning to occur naturally. (SRT)

Utilizes the experiences of seven elementary teachers to examine issues and attitudes concerning whole language learning. Although the seven teachers often feel alienated within their own profession, they remain adamant in their commitment. Discusses their conversion to whole language learning and the influence of the New Zealand school. (MJP)

A pilot tutor training project, the Student-Tutor Orientation (STO), was designed to meet the need for making whole-language concepts of reading and writing instruction accessible to tutors as well as students through hands-on experience and for establishing a collaborative tutoring relationship in which students share in decision making.…

Project READ had a two-fold purpose: to improve the reading levels of diagnosed learning disabled adults, and to investigate the following research questions: (1) which of three teaching approaches selected for this study is most effective for reading disabled adults? (2) what is effective assessment? and (3) how may the impact of reading…

A supplemental reading program designed to increase basic reading vocabulary was implemented as a practicum project with first-grade students demonstrating deficiencies in reading. The students were assigned to teams (organized according to alphabetized lists of topics generated by the students) to write, illustrate, and read books cooperatively…

The origins of modern English teaching can be found in the Uniform Lists provided by eastern colleges, beginning in 1874, for college entrance examinations. The study of literature was informed by the arguments of Matthew Arnold, who maintained that the purpose of literature study was initiation into, and maintenance of, "high…

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…

Research indicates that reading and writing should be learned together since both are language processes, and that children should be shown how the skills they have acquired during learning to read apply to learning to write. A language experience approach is useful for accomplishing this. Many aspects of writing point out the integrative…

A method is described for teaching writing to students for whom English is nearly a "first" language by virtue of the nature and circumstances of their use of it. The basic tenet of the approach is that the student can only learn to write well if he has a belief in himself and in the value of his own responses. To write well, the student must…

This paper describes a program that systematically increases the composition productivity of disabled students who are inexperienced writers. Program features include building discourse units, using student-generated language, and incorporating self-evaluation. Procedures for small group instruction focus on constructing and testing clauses,…

Utilizes M. A. K. Halliday's theories concerning the social and cultural functions of language to construct a series of social studies/language arts integrated learning activities. First graders wrote letters to an imaginary mouse in their desks and third graders answered the letters. Analyzes this activity and includes an annotated bibliography.…

This manual was developed to help trainers and volunteer coordinators prepare volunteers who tutor adults in basic skills. It is based on 9 of the 11 workshops presented at a Training the Trainer conference in Colorado. Chapters 1, 2, 4, and 6 provide background information for training. Chapters 3, 5, and 7-9 provide materials for presenting…

When working with limited English proficient (LEP) children who have been mainstreamed into regular elementary school classrooms, teachers must keep in mind that the first order of business is to help the students build a store of knowledge about English--how it sounds, what it looks like in print, and what it means. Teachers will discover that it…

This document is a prospectus for a pilot project being developed by Teacher Corps Rural-Migrant, University of Southern California, in cooperation with the Cutler-Orosi Unified School District in Tulare County, California. The project aims to "utilize visual literacy to teach English as a second language and to develop other communication…