In many classrooms, poetry is shoved to the neglected edge of language arts, out of the bright core of content that may (should) include grammar, vocabulary, and strong literature. If time permits, a class may read a few poems and discuss them from a so-called "interpretive" point of view. All of this takes place in the context of an apparent…

This report presents student-level achievement results for the four charter schools that began operation in Tennessee during the 2003-04 academic year. To conduct a rigorous and valid analysis of student achievement outcomes at these schools, we employed a matched program-control design at the student level, whereby each charter school student was…

Texas state assessment (TAKS) data in reading/English language arts and mathematics from 2006 and 2007 for AISD students enrolled in Fall 2007 were examined to find out how many students failed both tests, passed both tests, or failed one but not the other, for two consecutive years.

In this article, the author provides one solution for librarians on how to choose what books to share with primary students when there are more than 15,000 children's books published each year and only 185 days of school. At Mt. Lebanon School, they devote the month of March to sharing some of the best books ever printed for children: Caldecott…

This article presents four Idea-Sparkers that were submitted by Jason McKinney, a graduate student at Southern Mississippi University and a 1st-grade teacher at Pisgah Elementary in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. First is entitled, "Raceway in the Classroom." This activity can help increase children's fluency and ability to identify numerous…

Canadian schools are witnessing widening gaps between traditional definitions of literacy, which include reading and writing, and contemporary literacy practices like interactive multimedia use and online communications. Language and literacy teachers are called upon daily to bridge these contradictions through the pedagogical and textual choices…

"Speak," by Laurie Halse Anderson, is one of the most powerful young adult novels to come along in the past decade. It has won numerous awards, including the "School Library Journal" award for "Best Book of the Year," and was a National Book Award Finalist. Despite this acclaim, many English teachers are uncomfortable teaching "Speak" in their…

This article draws attention to the ever-increasing population of middle level students who come from bilingual education programs and find themselves in our classrooms still learning to use English for academic purposes without the benefit of ESL or primary language supports. Authors Cuero and Dworin advocate for curriculum and teaching that…

In this article, the authors discuss how Google Earth provides more than a geography lesson. For starters, Google Earth is perfect for teaching geography. Subscribe to Where in the World, for example, and have their students listen to podcast clues in a find-the-location game created by students worldwide. Clues relate to math (the population of…

This implementation guide is intended to support the Kindergarten to Grade 3 portion of the Ukrainian Language Arts Kindergarten to Grade 9 Program of Studies. It was developed primarily for teachers, yet it includes information that may be useful for administrators and other stakeholders in their efforts to plan for and implement the new…

"Children's Choices," a project of a joint committee supported by the International Reading Association (IRA) and the Children's Book Council, is published annually in "The Reading Teacher." Books recommended by children are grouped by levels: Beginning Reader (ages 5-7); Young Readers (ages 8-10); and Advanced Readers (ages…

This descriptive study identifies the thinking and learning skills--such as good decision-making strategies and monitoring one's own learning progress--that students should acquire, as described in standards documents from state departments of education, from national subject-area organizations, and from organizations concerned about adequate…

Burnout is a concept which was born in the mid 1970s in the USA and with astonishing rapidity has become a catch-word to convey an almost unlimited variety of social and personal problems afflicting workers. It describes a specific dysfunction among helping professionals, believed to be the result of excessive demands made upon their energy,…

Assuming that readers' emotional responses can enhance readers' metacognitive experiences and inform literary analysis, this study of 11th-grade poetry readers features instruction that models both cognitive and affective reading processes. The author: (1) Presents a case for more explicit attention to emotion in language arts classrooms; (2)…

Students engaged in literary response on weblogs they wrote and maintained for an 11th-grade English class. Three focal students, all members of a "regular" American Literature class in a school that is highly invested in The College Board's Advanced Placement program, forge hybrid social languages from the discourse of formal literary analysis…