Describes how the authors worked with five groups of second and fourth graders using picture books written and illustrated by Patricia Polacco in a project that involved reading Polacco's books aloud to the children, encouraging their aesthetic engagement with books, valuing children's questions, and culminating in a session in which children…

Reflects on how the author's third-grade students, experienced in literary conversation from their reading workshop, transferred the practice of literary conversation to their writing workshop. (SR)

Recent Latino immigrants may not realize that their children will be asked to relinquish collectivist values in pursuit of educational achievement. Finding child-led parent-teacher conferences incompatible with Latino values, a teacher training with the "Bridging Cultures Project" developed a less-threatening group-conference format. (10…

Focuses on factors affecting women teachers' work in Lebowa (South Africa) secondary schools, particularly on whether they are aware of being ideologically controlled by a centralized curriculum and the state structure of apartheid by focusing on languages. Illustrates how women teachers respond to and resist these controls in different work…

Combines item response theory (IRT) and statistical methods to analyze California Achievement Test-Mathematics (CAT-M) results for 4,135 seventh graders in northeast Ohio. Provides information to educational analysts about which IRT model fits CAT-M data for the target population, test accuracy in estimating students' abilities at different…

Asserts that to implement successful literature groups in which students discuss their responses to a common piece of literature they have read, a teacher must consider setting an appropriate classroom environment, choosing quality literature, forming heterogeneous groups, selecting reading schedules, teaching diverse methods of responding,…

Describes the Rasch calibration of a portion of the Watkins Farnum Performance Scale (J. Watkins and S. Farnum, 1954), a test of instructional music performance, for 218 sixth graders. Results show how Rasch scaling allows item difficulties to be estimated, the test to be administered more efficiently, and diagnostic information to be obtained.…

Argues that all types of violence are deeply embedded inside poor and working-class white communities, specifically domestic violence. Indicates that many poor and working-class females are socialized into a code of silence that perpetuates the abuse cycle. States that educators and schools must break the silence and confront domestic violence.…

Examines three assumptions evident in the practice of art criticism models: (1) the connection of first impressions with the viewer's past experience; (2) the connection between sequential procedures and learning; and (3) the use of judgment as a necessary step in understanding. Describes a new criticism model that stresses understanding and…

Examines how researchers can study children's interaction with literature, discussing various perspectives that can be taken on children's literary responses and suggesting lines of inquiry and concepts that might be useful for the continued examination of children's responses. Focuses on the author, the literary text itself, the reader, and the…

Discusses Garth Boomer's 1989 keynote address. Suggests it prefigured debates central to English teachers' professional development, to the pages of his journal, in Australia's classrooms for the next 10 years on the following issues: (1) progressivism/critical literacy divide; (2) variations on the genre debate; (3) reader-response theory vs.…

Reminisces about how students reacted to learning about the Vietnam War within a U.S. history course where the students read the book "Dispatches" by Michael Herr which encouraged the students to empathize with their fathers who lived in that era. Discusses the implications this reaction has for teaching history. (CMK)

Presents a case study of an experienced professor's comments on a design report in a first-year engineering class. Compares these comments with the commenting styles of technical-writing teachers. Finds the comments are highly directive and at odds with the preference for facilitative comments prevailing in composition studies. Notes that…

A Virginia Department of Education survey of urban, suburban, and rural schools using block scheduling revealed fewer disciplinary problems, a strong teacher preference for this format over traditional scheduling, and positive effects on standardized test scores in reading and mathematics. When time is used well in schools, school climate improves…

The Lewisburg (Pennsylvania) Area Middle School has successfully implemented an alternating-day block schedule that has yielded improved academic performance. The positive effect may derive from administrative support, teacher empowerment, and community agreement. The culture of the traditional schedule and school year remains essentially intact,…