Presents conversations between the authors (public school teachers and participants in a graduate level teacher action research course) and six people in language education who have greatly affected the teachers' work (Dixie Goswami, Tom Newkirk, Donald Graves, Nancie Atwell, Linda Rief, and Tom Romano) regarding issues these leading educators…

Offers some ground rules for using collaborative learning effectively in the secondary English class. Describes three assignments involving collaborative effort that the author has used successfully in her teaching. (SR)

Focuses on one elementary school teacher during the Language Arts lessons of her student teaching, and focuses on a single conflict she had with the values of the school. Suggests alternative approaches emphasizing the importance of creating settings that support teachers who wish to teach in ways that their school structures discourage. (SC)

Describes a drama lesson in which a class of grade-one students spent one and a half hours engaged with second-year elementary education student teachers. Illustrates the power of drama to deeply engage students in a range of language arts activities. (SR)

Presents a series of conversations with distinguished educator Brian Cambourne, recipient of the National Council of Teachers of English's Outstanding Educator award. Discusses learning to read, Cambourne's doctoral dissertation, why the conditions of learning are important, three categories of beliefs about "literacy," the politics of…

This article reports on the consistency of the achievement-level classifications (below basic, basic, proficient, and advanced) established in 1999 for the South Carolina Palmetto Achievement Challenge Tests (PACT; Huynh, Meyer, & Barton, 2000) of English language arts and mathematics. It also utilizes the PACT longitudinal data files of…

Concept maps are graphical ways of working with ideas and presenting information. They reveal patterns and relationships and help students to clarify their thinking, and to process, organize and prioritize. Displaying information visually--in concept maps, word webs, or diagrams--stimulates creativity. Being able to think logically teaches…

The parameters set by official stories tend to be more oriented towards a social or political agenda and the children and their families can oppose these parameters in order to implement the alternative discourses based on their own experiences. Currently, it is seen that with regards to the official stories and the alternative discourses, change…

English teachers can use drama as a performance tool in the English language arts classroom in order to help students build their knowledge of the context of a piece of literature and expand their thinking about text, bridging the learning from self to text to world. Authentic drama assignments capture the students' ability to understand complex…

Leaving her classroom to become a district resource teacher allowed Donna W. Hanak to experience a professional learning community. Inspired by the experience and her research into the processes of teaching and learning, she returned to teaching, able to create "authentic learning relationships" with students

Science fiction deserves a greater respect, serious and critical reading and a better place in high school literature classes. Some of the science fiction books by Isaac Asimov, Alfred Bester, Ray Bradbury and Octavia L. Butler and various activities for incorporating science fiction into the English language arts instruction classroom are…

This is an extended summary of a pedagogic essay by Mikhail M. Bakhtin on writing style, titled "Dialogic Origin and Dialogic Pedagogy of Grammar: Stylistics as Part of Russian Language Instruction in Secondary School." In this essay, written in spring 1945 while Bakhtin was a secondary school teacher of Russian language arts, he argues that every…

Because the modern an age demands technological and visual literacies alongside strong skills in reading and writing, students must be effective communicators in order to succeed. In this article, the author argues that in order to prepare students for success outside of the classroom, a twelfth grader needs to do more than read at a twelfth grade…

Using an Around the World unit to introduce students to over 30 nations, Wilson proposes "trail mix" over "melting pot" as a metaphor for multiculturalism in this article. Students kept a travel journal as they explored different cultures, and a school-wide celebration of diversity included trying out the dress, music, and language of each.…

University educator P. L. Thomas recalls the significant figures in his professional life and, drawing from their example, exhorts us to "command the daily events of our own careers." He outlines specific actions that he believes English language arts teachers must take.