Describes the focus of a freshman literature course: understanding literary meaning, analyzing literary form, and exploring literary value with each of the three one-quarter classes drawing on the resources of a major area within current literary studies, such as hermeneutics (meaning), poetics (form), and criticism (evaluation). (EL)

Two instances of teacher response, shaping, and evaluation of students' texts are analyzed. Although one text is oral, the other written, striking parallels in teacher-assigned task, text structure, and teacher-student interaction are noted. Explanations focus on schools as institutions and on the complex interpretive processes operating in urban,…

Results showed a number of significant developmental changes in students' nonverbal communication as perceived by teachers. (PD)

Explores the role of interpersonal cognitive complexity in the character impressions, story comprehension, response preferences, and literary attitudes of eleventh grade students. Results suggest that interpersonal cognitive complexity predisposes readers toward complex perceptions of literary characters. (HOD)

Discusses a teaching technique used in a child development course to increase education majors' awareness of personal feelings toward children and childhood. Following a brief summary of several related reports and an outline of six historical viewpoints on children, the technique and its results are explained. (DST)

Discusses the emerging assumptions of literature and its teaching that knowledge is made and must be remade by each person. Considers the relationships between the reader and the text, the reader and the reader, and the relationship between texts. (EL)

Presents guidelines for determining when interactive courseware requiring single-keypress responses (multiple choice answers) and constructed responses (typed-in answers) are appropriate for use in the classroom. Research findings of studies concerned with these response types are briefly discussed, and needs for further research are outlined.…

Indicates that certain items in reading comprehension tests are not measuring for hearing impaired students the particular reading skill they are intended to measure. Argues for a word/idea association strategy as the explanation for this and briefly discusses its relevance for testing and educating the hearing impaired. (FL)

Employs a well-developed information-processing task to assess the nature of the representation and activitation of letters and geometrical figures and the changes that occur with reading development. (FL)

Describes field test findings of a project funded by the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium and the Rockefeller Family Fund to demonstrate that microcomputers and home videodisc players can deliver instruction to students. Basic research questions and field testing procedures for a high school economics course are provided. (MBR)

Respect and communication. That's what teachers and paraprofessionals say makes an effective classroom team. In speaking with paraprofessionals and teachers, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) has gathered several tips about how to make working together work. These tips include: (1) Creating a healthy, open relationship between teacher and…

American public education faces increasing pressure to demonstrate the competence of all of its students as they progress through the grades and, especially, as students exit their high schools. In response, policymakers are developing sophisticated accountability and support systems in efforts to steer schools toward improved performance. These…

This book is divided into four parts, each focusing on an important aspect of evaluating, selecting, or using nonfiction books in the classroom. Under Part I--Choosing Quality Nonfiction Literature: Evaluation and Selection--are the following chapters: (1) "Nonfiction Books for Children: New Directions, New Challenges" (Susan Hepler);…

Chinua Achebe is one of Africa's best-known and most influential contemporary writers. His first novel, "Things Fall Apart," is a narrative about the European colonization of Africa told from the viewpoint of the colonized people. Published in 1958, the novel recounts the life of the warrior and village hero Okonkwo and describes the…