Suggests elements of the basic structure of the National Council of Teachers of English has remained the same for decades, while other elements have grown. Looks at positive growth in NCTE over the last two decades of the 20th century, noting research, women's issues, the standards wars, and affiliates as political bases. Describes two important…

Describes a high school language arts elective course on the novel, based on copious reading both in and out of class, a mix of assigned books and personal choice books in a broad range of difficulty in sophistication, and a wide range of activities, discussions, and writing. Notes enthusiastic responses, individual victories, and the sense of…

Describes how the author incorporated her requirements for a term research paper into multigenre writing. Discusses what multigenre is, how it can be taught and assessed, and what makes it such a rich, workable alternative to the traditional research assignment. (SR)

Presents two standards-based language arts activities for middle school students. The first involves collecting family photographs, writing a descriptive essay based on each one, and publishing the final product using Microsoft Publisher. The second involves creating one-page autobiographies, designing a publishable product, and publishing it…

Examined the graphic representations of male and female characters in primary school textbooks in China, focusing on 1st-6th grade language, ethics, and mathematics. Analysis of textbook illustrations, identification of figures' activities, and classification of adults' occupations indicated that the illustrations stereotyped gender roles in a…

Introduces an integrated science activity in which students learn about the principles of superposition, biostratigraphy, and correlation and study the single-celled microorganism foraminifera to learn about marine biology. (YDS)

Sixth grade language arts teacher Ms. Jones has just finished teaching a unit she's taught for the past 10 years. She uses the works of O. Henry to teach literary elements. Not much has changed about this unit over the years; the learning objectives and concepts covered have stayed the same. But something is different this year. Students are…

The language arts classroom is largely about leading students to become literate in their own voices and to see writing as a tool for thinking. I come to know my students through their writing and through class discussions about the texts we read and the texts we write. The challenge of good writing instruction is leading students to view their…

In many classrooms across North America, teachers face the challenge of how to help the growing number of children who are not native English speakers. This article describes several strategies teachers can use for approaching beginning reading of English with second-language learners. These include: (1) A comprehension-centered curriculum; (2) A…

A teacher encourages her students to develop a language of critique through their study of candidates' platforms in a presidential election. It is concluded that the critical literacy/social justice curriculum in elementary classrooms is an effective learning experiences for students.

The work and contributions of Emilia, a professor at the Center of Research and Advanced Studies are discussed. A glimpse into Emilia Ferreiro's life and her unique contribution provides an insight to the understandings of children's intellectual literacy histories.

In this paper, we draw on Bernstein's [1996. "Pedagogy, symbolic control and identity: Theory, research, critique." London: Taylor and Francis] notion of "framing" of pedagogical communication to propose a framework for use in specific literacy contexts. Here, we illustrate how this framework has emerged from an examination of text response online…

This study explores informants' experiences in a reading/writing program that paired eighth-grade language arts students with elderly volunteers. Twenty-three pairs were followed over an academic year as they read books in common, corresponded in response journals, and met in person at program social events. Through analysis of interviews, their…

This article considers what happened when a teacher posed the following question to her fifth graders during literature discussions: "Why might we read more than one story about a topic or a person?" As the students responded to this question across several weeks, they began to develop a more comprehensive conception of themselves as readers,…

In 1986, while still at Harvard, I started teaching summer school at the Bread Loaf School of English, the graduate program in English of Middlebury College. Bread Loaf offers courses in literature, theater, and writing--here I fit in. I came to that job with a background in applied linguistics and cognitive development, but not in literature, and…