Describes new standards set by the International Reading Association and National Council of Teachers of English. States that the new standards reflect the best of current research and theory about how students learn to be powerful users of English language arts. Provides details about the new standards, including how they were revised from their…

Presents an interview with Bernice E. Cullinan. Notes that she has been named the Outstanding Educator in the Language Arts for 2003. Notes that the recipients of this award are selected by members of the Elementary Section Steering Committee of the National Council of Teachers of English. Talks about who she is and what she feels she has…

Presents an appreciation in honor and praise of language arts educator Donald H. Graves. Describes the rewards, now compounding through the generations, of his gentle encouragement and his continual modeling as a learner himself, teaching students and classroom teachers to value all they know and all they can do through writing compassionately and…

Offers tips for incorporating Shakespeare into a creative dramatics program for elementary students: ensure a speaking part for every child; assign parts best for the child; produce the play most comfortable for the class; allow for student input on characterization; rehearse a portion of the play each day; plan for several performances; and…

Presents a conversation with Dorothy Watson, the 2002 Outstanding Educator in the Language Arts recipient. Hopes that this profile will provide insight into Dorothy Watson and her intellectual foundations, her humaneness, and her passion for teaching and learning. (SG)

Examines the categories of articles in the ERIC database that provide information about using literature across the curriculum. (MG)

Sees collaborative inquiry as what curriculum should be all about. Describes a curricular model in which disciplines become research devices that students constantly use rather than areas to be mastered. Identifies and discusses the five key processes that language plays in learning: voice, connection, perspective through transmediation, tension,…

Argues that language arts education and discussions of language arts have skirted issues of existential philosophy and religion, even though these issues are inherently a part of literature. Raises concerns about the personal and political consequences of avoiding questions about why people exist and what purpose they have in life. (TB)

"Elegant compromises" in the classroom can make divisive discussions between traditionalists and multiculturalists seem irrelevant. For 25 years, public high school students in at least 3 of Wigginton's English classes have met language arts requirements by studying their Appalachian mountain history, customs, and traditions. This…

Provides a nine-item annotated bibliography of publications in the ERIC database related to literature and the language arts. Offers useful resources that satisfy a variety of professional needs. (MG)

Defines semiotics and outlines its implications for teaching language arts. (PRA)

Describes how two eighth-grade language arts teachers ventured into the territory of vocabulary development. Describes several class activities and strategies they used to increase students' vocabulary and to make students into enthusiastic explorers and discoverers of words. (SR)

Discusses the importance of teaching keyboarding skills at an early age. Suggests that these skills be taught in the language arts curriculum by a business education teacher and should be an integral part of all the curriculum at all levels. (JOW)

Offers a fictional look at an American high school sometime in a future in which the academic team's performance--a model of reason rather than force, teamwork rather than competition, and the sharing of knowledge--is the focus of school and community pride and involvement. (SR)

Discusses drama in English in light of what actually happens in the classroom. Claims drama is valuable when discussed as a separate, autonomous subject in the school curriculum as opposed to one subsumed within English. Emphasizes the primacy of performance in drama education. (NH)