Describes an assessment approach designed to enable students and their parents to ask reflective questions about the student's work and to consider efficient strategies to improve that work. (MM)

Uses proverbs to facilitate the development of inferential reading skills. Provides examples of proverbs which children have finished with their own original endings. (MG)

Notes that the ability to move from the general to the specific and back again is one of the schemas that basic writers lack. Argues that this schema can be developed through carefully composed writing assignments that employ all of the arts of language--reading, writing, speaking, and listening. (RS)

Describes how to introduce a Shakespeare play by having students act out and discuss an edited, pivotal scene from the play. Suggests various scenes which are well-suited to this activity. (MM)

Examines collaborative writing and the importance of children's talk as they write. Provides several examples of children's dialogues during collaborative writing and role-playing sessions. (MM)

Focuses on reading instruction to assess the role of language arts instruction in homogeneous societies of recent decades. Uses this assessment to explore the changes that future pluralistic societies will require. Asserts that to accommodate a pluralistic society, classroom structure, communication, and organization must use language for…

A primary grade school with a large low-income Hispanic population reviewed and revised several instructional programs, particularly for language arts and mathematics, to increase student achievement and motivation. (CB)

Describes how seven elementary-school teachers (who described themselves as whole language teachers) learned more about language arts through collaborative teamwork, participation in research, and professional writing over a three-year period. Notes dramatic changes in the teachers' views of themselves, their teammates, their instructional…

Presents results of a survey of Florida teachers of English/language arts regarding the teaching of literature, the literary canon, and multicultural literature. Suggests that teachers must accept and embrace the fact that they are multicultural educators--not because of the literature they teach, but because of the students they teach. (SR)

Buoyed by the success of an informal, unexpected "pilot study" using sign language and Spanish and a challenge from a university colleague, a Florida middle-school teacher expanded the use of second languages in her classes. An ensuing study involving 115 eighth graders showed a positive change in students' attitudes toward foreign…

Describes a weekly meeting of a collaborative elementary school teacher support group in Ohio. Triangular conferencing, which involves parent-teacher-student and is student-led, is the subject of the meeting. Also describes visits to elementary classrooms where new ways to teach reading and writing are implemented with input from Regie Routman,…

Presents 17 classroom activities with an environmental theme. Activities are divided by grade level (grades K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12) and by subject matter (science, social studies, language arts, mathematics, and fine arts). Contains 15 suggestions for celebrating Earth Day. (LZ)

Expresses concern with the trend in K-12 education to subsume oral communication programs under the rubric of language arts in English departments. Uses California as a case study to examine whether English teachers are integrating speech communication into the English classroom. Finds that little direct instruction in communication principles and…

Presents a computer-assisted activity that helps students discover the importance of choosing words carefully. With a word processing program, small groups of students prepare creative, fill-in-the-blank challenges in which classmates must replace missing adjectives or verbs. (SM)

Describes "Help Our Earth!"--a flexible, multimedia software program for language arts and science, which presents the topic using color, sound, graphics, good literature, and an inspiring video. (SR)