This book illustrates the benefits of using real-life vignettes to highlight situations that allow undergraduate teacher candidates to learn to engage with English language arts issues within specific and authentic concepts. Pedagogical narratives written by secondary teachers, followed by thoughtful responses to these narratives by experienced…

This book addresses the crucial and controversial questions that face today's reading scholars, educators, and professionals. Contributors to the book offer their insights and expertise on such issues as the phonics/whole language debate, the state of reading comprehension instruction, the validity of and need for standards and assessment,…

Noting that Alice in Wonderland's journey is not unlike the experience of an immigrant who relocates to a new country, this lesson plan uses passages from "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," along with various history texts, class discussions of students' experiences, and primary source documents and images from the American Memory collections, to…

This guide is an evaluation that can help one answer relevant questions about improving a reading or language arts program such as: Are there changes that need to be made? Is a stronger commitment needed to strengths identified in the program? and Are specific resources needed to make it more successful? The manual points out that if an improved…

This U.S. history curriculum guide, based upon historical essays written by Richard B. Bernstein, is intended for students in grades 7 and 8, and is the keystone of the 'Crossroads' project. The guide introduces students to the chronological structure of U.S. history and to the eight overarching themes of U.S. history as defined by the…

This publication contains journal essays and book chapters from publications of the National Council of Teachers of English. The following articles appear in the publication's first section, "Multimedia in the Classroom": (1) "The Classroom" (Marilyn Jody and Marianne Saccardi); (2) "Let's Go to the Movies: Rethinking the…

This book's purpose is to assist school library media specialists in incorporating specific learning objectives into a storytime format, thus extending the storytime experience into standards-based reading and writing lessons. The book is intended for veteran and beginning school library media specialists and teachers who collaborate with them.…

This book presents six essays that explain where the educational term "scaffolding" comes from and what it means, then journeys into classrooms that demonstrate effective scaffolding in practice. In the process, it shows that "content" cannot be taught apart from the language about that content. The essays in the book are also about the role of…

Teachers, parents, policymakers, and others interested in researching what is best for teaching children literacy skills will find literally thousands of resources purporting to be "best practices." This book suggests examining real classrooms--teachers and students actively involved in literacy learning--to determine what works in…

The focus of this report is the Language Arts (LA) component within the Primary Education Improvement Project (PEIP II) in Jamaica that was launched in 1993 and specifically the cataloging and reviewing of LA materials being used in primary schools at the grade 4 to 6 levels. Content suitability, levels of difficulty, layout, print, and…

This activity-centered approach to teaching geography to elementary students is based on children's literature. Methodologies for teaching the themes of geography involving children's books and stories are given. The book is organized into five chapters: (1) "Geographic Literacy in Curriculum" gives instructions for using the book and provides…

This publication from the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) is designed to inform parents about the department's prekindergarten curriculum in four major areas: language arts/reading, mathematics, science, and social studies. The integrated language arts/reading standards include listening attentively and participating courteously…

Stresses the importance of creative dramatics in the language arts program, emphasizing the contribution drama makes to learning in the reading and literature programs, oral language development, non-verbal communication, listening skills, and creative writing. (RB)

A composition course for teachers emphasizes the importance of writing for a specific audience, of alternating between the concrete and the abstract, and of developing intelligent criteria for evaluating writing. (Author)