Notes that those cross-cultural classroom exchanges that yield the most energy, intensity, and recognizable change are those centered upon students' simple needs, feelings, and fears. Uses such exchanges as the focus for wide-ranging questions about how best to modify language arts curricula and teaching to meet students' needs. (HTH)

Four teachers discuss benefits of humor and the disadvantages of sarcasm. Includes a humorous piece on teaching cheating in the classroom. (EL)

Discusses a program designed for elementary school students to develop an awareness of ancient Greece through the voices of its poets. (DF)

Describes how classrooms can "talk the language of" and "write about" mathematics concepts and procedures, thereby demystifying the abstraction of math and, at the same time, developing literacy skills. (GC)

Describes observations of how fourth-grade teacher Donna Carrara integrates literature into her writing program at the Montclair (New Jersey) Kimberly Academy. (HTH)

Explores the relationships between children's literature and moral development. Discusses characteristics of a "female morality" and why such a perspective is important. Describes some children's books that exemplify this perspective and offers suggestions for their use to help children develop morally as well as cognitively and socially. (HTH)

The application of microtechnology in a school for multiply handicapped children is explained to include a language arts program stressing sentence formation and letter matching, production of artificial speech, and communication aids for physically impaired children. Adaptations for severe physical involvement and for visual impairments are…

Argues that the value of humor in a reading/language arts program may not be understood completely and may often be overlooked. Suggests that the use of humor is supportable by many learning theories and that it has probable affective and cognitive benefits. (FL)

Describes a class project in which students solicited the opinions of famous and important people concerning the issue of nuclear war. The project taught students the process of inquiry and critical thinking. (HTH)

Discusses the Teaching Act Model and the very complex set of contexts that determines why each teacher does what she or he does and that makes the appropriateness and effectiveness of those decisions not completely determinable by observation alone. (HTH)

A preliminary classroom study is reported in which learning disabled intermediate students participated in a holistic approach that combined the process approach to writing with the word processing capabilities of the microcomputer. Results suggested that improved written language skills on the computer transfer to pencil-and-paper tasks. (CL)

Offers suggestions for use in evaluating word processing programs for writing instruction. Provides an evaluation form. (FL)

Discusses six ERIC documents reporting computer applications in reading and language arts. (FL)

The craft of writing is accessible to everyone. To revive it will require that students learn more--read more history and literature and philosophy--and think about problems and the ways human beings have responded to the universal dilemmas of life. (MLW)

Do the characteristics of English, as presently conceived warrant the position of importance in the average curriculum that English now commands? Might not another concept of language prove more fruitful for instructional purposes and more relevant to present conditions? Author attempts to answer these questions. (Author/RK)