Discusses a variety of ways in which teachers respond to the demands of teaching disruptive students. (Author/RK)

Addresses the relationship of fear to certain outdoor adventure activities that are a part of some environmental education programs. Describes the construct of fear, its use in outdoor environmental programs, and the results of two recent studies on fear. (TW)

Discusses how the authors' review of literature on ability grouping prompted them to look closer at the objectivity of research in general. Concludes that predispositions to specific topics of research, prompted by preexisting values and characteristics of the particular reader, affects the objectivity of the reader in interpreting research…

Discusses teaching junior high students Ann Sexton's poem about remembrances of childhood. Notes the strong personal connections students make with the action and feelings of the poem, and that the poem helps thirteen- and fourteen-year olds understand their own developmental transformations. Suggests related writing assignments based on multiple…

Describes the efforts of five pupil service personnel in a small, midwestern school system in responding to student, teacher, and parent needs after a 14-year-old boy wounded two teachers and a student and killed the principal in a shooting spree. Suggests that schools develop tactical plans for responding to catastrophic situations. (Author)

Identifies two statistically significant prediction equations involving independent dynamics that are based on information provided by 225 primary teachers regarding (1) 14 predictor variables and (2) their orientations toward three instructional emphases: graphophonics, skills, and whole language. (NKA)

Assesses surveys of college writing teachers using computers in their composition courses. Results show little consensus in equipment or methods, but indicate that all teachers are positive about the computer's potential as a teaching and writing tool. The questionnaire is appended. (AEW)

Brain-injured (N=24), cultural-familially retarded (N=24), and nonretarded (N=28) adolescents and young adults were compared on a letter priming task requiring recognition of matched pairs. Response time in both retarded groups was considerably slower than in the nonretarded group, and effortful processing was also slower to develop. (JW)

Describes the implementation year of the Renewal Institute for Practicing Educators (RI) of Southern Illinois University, an in-service education program that follows up on participants to determine whether teachers are implementing the ideas and suggestions offered during the original program. The RI program provides in-service education…

Explicates D. Trudell's poem about two men, unknown to each other and both approaching middle age, who shoot baskets in a moment of camaraderie. Describes use in the classroom of the poem's evocative potential to introduce students to aesthetic experience and the idea of a controlling metaphor. Quotes student responses to questions about the poem.…

This article reports on the results of a descriptive study of wait-time in first-year high school foreign language classes. Over 7500 classroom events were recorded and coded in order to measure and find the variance in time of 3270 instances of post-solicitation and post-response wait-time. Results are discussed. (Author/DF)

Criticizes contemporary approaches to literature instruction that inculcate passivity. Proposes a system of teaching literature that promotes cultural literacy and active, rather than passive, reading by encouraging students to discover cultural messages and make their own interpretations of the cultural infrastructure and culture-specific values…

Extends constructive theories of reading to argue for an advanced composition course that has two implications: (1) writing is a value-free technology; thus, (2) learning to write is learning to manage a technology, not training to be a moral person. (MS)

Classroom teachers serving handicapped students in the mainstream often need to make instructional modifications. This article discusses reasons for teacher resistance to instructional modifications and provides strategies that consultative staff can use to prevent or reduce resistance. Expectancy theory is used to provide a framework for…

Asserts that students engage--successfully or unsuccessfully--in dialogues with the curriculum as well as with their texts. Discusses the nature of that dialogue, and the relationship between a reader and the written text. Concludes that the reading dialogue is a vital aspect in the child-curriculum encounter. (MM)