A monthly exchange of tips, projects, ideas, and resources. (Editor)

A review of research and informed opinion on the integration of the language arts curriculum. (DD)

Plenty of subject choices make creative writing personal and successful. (Editor)

Contains a response to an earlier article in the May/June 1996 issue of this journal which weaves into the Texas story references to apparent failures in California. Presents a corrective version of the challenges faced by public schools in California. (TB)

Discusses language and literacy learning, and some current language arts practices that warrant reconsideration. Describes and offers examples of the move away from oppositional discourses (set up by pedagogical debates) and to the "radical middle." Notes a move toward a third place where two normative patterns of interaction intersect, creating…

Suggests that the "Standards for the English Language Arts" (copublished by the National Council of Teachers of English and the International Reading Association) makes good sense about literature and almost none at all about literacy. Argues that for 99% of the school population, the de-emphasis of the "Standards" on formal written communication…

Reports on a project by a reading teacher that combines reading and science while debunking the myth of the big, bad wolf. Related activities include making animal tracks, writing, and measurement activities. (DDR)

Reports on the design of a collaborative learning community linking students in biology and English courses in author-editor relationships. Delineates the steps of the project and provides sample evaluations for both groups. (Contains 19 references.) (DDR)

Describes and interprets how one Aboriginal teacher in Canada used her cultural understandings to build a cross-cultural language arts program for inner-city children. (TB)

Examines the last five years of articles in this journal to show what topics were most often written about (the "Top Picks" or "TopPics"). Discusses these results and makes recommendations that deserve considerable attention in the future. Notes that integrated language arts was a perennial TopPic. (SR)

Offers observations and reflections on research and research issues in the field of language arts. Discusses issues and factors significant to the state and future of language arts research, including: sociopolitical context, new and old issues confronting the field, and research needed for the public good. (SR)

Presents a read-aloud from Gustave Flaubert's "Madame Bovary." Discusses briefly the novel and the selection, and then describes specific activities for English and for language arts instruction. (SR)

Analyzes English language arts content standards of four states in the areas of organization, style, and content, using the International Reading Association/National Council of Teachers of English publication, "Standards for the English Language Arts," as a guide. Concludes that standards reflect only a small part of what goes on in…