Reports a survey of Arizona teachers and administrators on (1) the extent to which teachers believe that standardized achievement tests reflect the language arts curriculum; (2) student reactions to standardized tests across grade levels; and (3) perceptions of the fairness of such tests across ethnicities and socioeconomic areas. Finds that…

Presents examples of classroom writing activities that can be incorporated into language arts textbooks for grades two, five, and eight to encourage civic thinking on issues such as nationhood, leadership, cultural differences, taxation, and war. (RS)

Explored the nature of a seventh grade teacher's reflections on instruction during university seminars and in her classroom. Analyzes three major orientations that guided the teacher's reflections regarding instructional improvement. Described the ways that the teacher expressed "new comprehension" of teaching and the ways that this new…

Discusses how workshops for young authors help to cement the reading-writing connection for students and build their motivation and enthusiasm. Provides a step-by-step outline for educators who are interested in planning and implementing a young author's conference. (MG)

Discusses three recent novels for young adults set in medieval times, illustrating several ways that modern writers incorporate medieval material into fiction. Argues that pairing such novels with medieval texts such as "Beowulf" and "The Canterbury Tales" offers opportunities to explore traditional literary topics while providing a gateway into…

Describes the author's experience as a student teacher facing an angry parent who challenged a book choice (a young adult novel by Chris Crutcher) that caused otherwise bored and disinterested students to read with interest and passion. (SR)

Describes the Shared Reading Program, a home-school effort of Gallaudet University's Pre-College National Mission Programs. Under the program, mentors teach parents and caregivers how to read to deaf children using American Sign Language. Describes a family with six young children includes 12 tips for reading to a deaf child. (DB)

Offers (from the perspective of a first-year teacher) five guidelines to student teachers to help make their student teaching semester more useful and enjoyable. Includes a response from a veteran English teacher. (SR)

Describes how one fourth-grade teacher used television, videos, computers, classroom guests, and lots of reading and writing to engage his students in their language-arts unit, focusing on the book "Shiloh." Discusses how such "intermediality" (using multiple media) increases students' comprehension and understanding of text, capturing their…

Uses concept maps to reveal important changes in the knowledge base of preservice teachers. Finds that preservice teachers in a school-based, three-course "literacy block" constructed richer, more professional, and more complete concept maps (relating more literacy teaching and subject-matter ideas together with logically appropriate connectors)…

Discusses and demonstrates combining scores from multiple-choice (MC) and constructed-response (CR) items to create a common scale using Item Response Theory methodology. Provides empirical results using a set of tests in reading, language, mathematics, and science in three grades. (SLD)

Discusses an integrated unit linking social studies, science, and language arts. Students get first-hand experience of legislative processes by writing and debating environmental-protection laws. (CCM)

Describes as a prewriting strategy the use of seventh-grade language-arts student and teacher story telling about "guilt trips" played by parents and teens. Maintains that this is a useful prewriting strategy often neglected as teachers move to a process-oriented instructional model. Describes pitfalls to the verbal prewriting strategy. (KB)

Describes how a 10th-grade English teacher brings a historical event such as World War I to life with words and visuals of the time. Discusses World War I poems as products of that era, and helps students realize they have the stream of language inside themselves by journaling, making a "word bank," and writing poems. (SR)

Reports results of a content analysis of 61 narratives of classroom practice that appeared in "Language Arts," volumes 69-74 (1992-1997), as a way of illustrating that narratives that include the twists and turns of practice are more powerful and persuasive than narratives that report only success. (SR)