Information on current trends and issues informally discussed and then delineated by the directors of 6 National Council of Teachers of English commissions, is presented in this 14th annual report. The commissions and their directors are: (1) Commission on Composition (Christine Kline); (2) Commission on Curriculum (Kathleen Andrasick); (3)…

This digest addresses the sometimes confrontational nature of decision making in the language arts. Pointing out that administrators are often thrust into the debate even when they do not want to be, the digest offers a set of principles for an educational philosophy that gives both the community and the learners a stake in the content and process…

This report, intended for teachers, administrators, school board members, parents, community leaders, and other concerned leaders, provides a rationale for the restructuring of elementary school education and makes specific recommendations for realizing that vision. The introduction discusses the need for educational changes in light of…

This compilation presents material related to the Reading English Rotation program, an individualized, diagnostic, prescriptive language arts program designed to meet the needs of secondary school students who score lowest in reading achievement. The compilation begins with a comparison of three years of evaluation data, noting that the average…

Information on current trends and issues informally discussed and then delineated by the directors of six National Council of Teachers of English commissions, is presented in this 12th annual report. The commissions and their directors are: (1) Commission on Curriculum (Dorothy King); (2) Commission on Composition (Christine Kline); (3) Commission…

Amateur radio is a technology and activity that offers great potential when integrated into academic or vocational curricula. Programs with electrical, electronics, and electromechanical content can benefit from the use of amateur radio, and can also enhance language and communications skills. The biggest value of amateur radio may lie in its…

These three papers deal with ways to incorporate social studies into the language arts curriculum. The first paper, "What Social Studies Teachers Need To Know about Language Arts," provides suggestions on the writing process and how that process can be used in the social studies. Paper 2, "Applying Communications Activities to Learning Processes…

A study of whole language teaching in urban heterogeneous classrooms was undertaken to identify teacher student classroom discourse patterns. Using the Gutierrez Index of Coding Schema researchers identified three discourse scripts in the 14 bilingual and multicultural classrooms in Southern California under investigation. These were: the…

Forty-one research studies completed between 1929 and 1983 investigated the effects of typewriting on the development of children's language arts skills. Information about each of the studies was entered in a Lotus 1-2-3 database containing 43 fields. Effect sizes were calculated for 21 studies. The collected evidence suggests a small positive…

This paper presents a secondary-level teaching technique that can be used in an integrated English and health education curriculum. The exercise provides students and teachers with a case study of a suicidal person for the purpose of teaching the warning signs of suicide, appropriate questioning, and referral skills. The case study uses Hamlet's…

This updated third edition is a handbook for teachers to bring the reflective inquiry emphasis of integrated curriculum theory to life in the elementary and middle school classroom. It takes an action approach to implement theory and practice in educating students for a democratic, multicultural society. The five major interrelated emphases in the…

Since the 1980s, several major trends have impelled educators to make especially significant changes to the K-12 curriculum in the various subject areas. Calls to provide students with "authentic" and interdisciplinary learning experiences, upgrade standards, and help all students achieve at a high level are affecting curriculum content…

A study examined the personal linguistic range of registers held by low socioeconomic black students to see if they differed from those of middle income children and to what degree this correlated to school achievement. The study used a modified version of both analytic induction and constant comparison. Subjects attended a Title 1 magnet school…

This book is part of a series of books presenting ready-to-use instructional units on themes typically taught in the primary grades. The topics focus on science, math, social studies or literature, but use language arts skills consistently in each unit. Each book in the series also uses as many frames of mind or intelligences as possible. Within a…

Designed to provide examples of the art form that in teaching has been tagged "the lesson cycle," this monograph contains a collection of 50 exemplary lessons that elementary and secondary English teachers have designed and that demonstrate the fusion of form and content that characterize the art of their teaching. The monograph is…