Describes a year-long project which combined the curricula of a language arts class, a library skills class, and an art class as 3 teachers and 163 sixth-grade students designed and created a 58-foot mural depicting the Dewey Decimal System. Notes that the mural adorns the school library and assists library users in locating the volumes they seek.…

Uses the form of an original three-act drama to sketch the dilemmas of educational reform. Highlights the experiences of a teacher struggling to reform language arts instruction and assessment in a traditional urban high school. (SR)

By comparing how students performed before and after a schoolwide writing program, a California middle school with a low-scoring reputation discovered that it ranked second in the district in steady student improvement. Effects of reporting the school's value-added results were overwhelmingly positive. Staff and students were finally recognized…

Discusses concepts underlying media literacy programs; how media literacy fits into the language arts curriculum; and the strands of a media literacy curriculum: viewing and representing. Provides models of the viewing (decoding) and representing (encoding) triangles. Includes a third-grade lesson plan developing skills in analyzing holiday season…

Preservice teachers, with no student teaching experience, in a literacy methods course wrote profiles of themselves, pretending that they were first-year teachers, and profiles of actual experienced teachers. Findings from analysis of the profiles focus on preservice teachers' expectations about classroom environment, language arts teaching,…

Describes an effective technique that teaches middle school students three patterns of organization extensively used by textbook authors and lecturing teachers: chronological order, cause and effect, and compare and contrast. (SR)

A veteran teacher explains that she must leave teaching because she cannot justify her participation in a system that resists change. Suggests that the teaching of literature in English classes is no longer in the best interest of most of the student body. (TB)

This study involved 14 students (ages 6-12) with developmental disabilities in inclusive classrooms, their 324 typical classmates, and 221 typical students in noninclusive classes. Students with developmental disabilities made gains in adaptive behavior. The academic performance of the typical students in reading/language arts and mathematics did…

Recommends skillful use of language arts to help students make sense of scientific and mathematical concepts. Suggests that connecting language arts with science and mathematics explicitly and intentionally strengthens teaching and learning in all three areas of the curriculum. (Author/NB)

Advocates the use of summary writing to enhance science learning. Presents a strategy to teach students how to identify and condense important information. (DDR)

The "fourth grade slump" in reading comprehension still exists. Among poor children, low comprehension ruins their chances for academic success. Among all children, comprehension scores are stagnant. Research indicates that key to both problems is systematically building children's vocabulary, fluency, and domain knowledge. To improve reading,…

Reports on a survey that investigated significant differences within the English teacher community in terms of the beliefs and practices on key issues. Makes a contribution to a larger National Council of Teachers of English project to foster communication among disparate groups of English educators. (TB)

Describes an unusual set of circumstances that paved the way for an interdisciplinary year-long United States History course involving reading and language arts that relied heavily on trade books to support the curriculum. Describes choosing the books and using them in the program. (SR)

Advocates inclusion of moral issues as part of curriculum planning. Argues that children need encounters with moral issues as part of their schooling experiences. Presents four metacognitive strategies for promoting moral thinking about children's literature in language arts and beyond schooling. Includes recommendations for classroom…

States that current trends encourage the integration of the curriculum which provides challenges for software programs that have been considered in other curricular areas. Finds that word processing software programs have the capability to not only enhance the mathematics program but also to integrate language arts into this instruction. (PA)