Describes how a unit titled "Alice Adjective" can be presented dramatically by the teacher in four lessons. (MG)

States that the focus of homework should be a positive social interaction with parents with gradually increasing independent responsibilities. Provides examples of activities for writing, spelling, and speaking homework that provide opportunities for real literary activities in the home. (MG)

Discusses computers and related technologies as a significant means for acquiring language arts skills. Samples a wide array of uses for educational computing in English and language arts classes. (SR)

Rip Van Winkle would not recognize Corsicana (Texas) High School since its curriculum coordinator began implementing learning styles techniques in various pilot programs. Lecturing to rows of bored students has been replaced by students' active involvement in group activities, listening centers, and tactile/kinesthetic exercises on the floor or at…

Describes the reading/language arts program at Queen Bee Elementary School (in a Chicago suburb), designated as an exemplary program by the International Reading Association. (SR)

Describes three teacher support groups, activities of which provide teachers with support in defining, implementing, and preserving programs that use whole-language methods, and are meaning centered and student focused. Also provides suggestions on starting a teacher support group. (BB)

Presents a short story about the visit of a book author to a low-level language arts class. Tells how the teacher's frustration at his students' lack of response led him to a new understanding of his students. (SR)

Explores the use of drama as a teaching tool to promote students' interest in literacy and to support every aspect of literacy development. Describes how drama can help develop affect, emergent literacy, decoding knowledge, fluency, vocabulary knowledge, syntactic knowledge, discourse knowledge, and metacognitive knowledge. Discusses also using…

Discusses how a literature and multimedia course for 11th and 12th graders used active-learning experiences to engage students with Shakespeare's "Henry IV, Part One." Describes how shouting Hal's soliloquy; constructing a chart of character relations; rewriting a scene in their own words; performing, filming, and critiquing a scene; and…

States that developing and implementing educational experiences that foster resiliency can be as easy as gaining a new perspective on traditional academic activities. Provides five examples of academic projects that can be used to build five important elements of resilience: competency, belonging, usefulness, potency, and optimism. (Author/MKA)

Discusses how alien students and teachers are to each other, especially when it comes to literature. Argues that these differences are at the root of many difficulties faced in helping students become readers and appreciate literature. Offers brief descriptions of 10 new or overlooked young-adult books worth reading. (SR)

Teachers should stop teaching traditional school-room grammar entirely. There is no reason to wound youngsters with something they will never learn and never need. Instead, teachers should treat usage and mechanics in gentle, encouraging, nontechnical, and innovative ways. A communication correctly understood by a native speaker is grammatical.…

Describes a high school elective English course that matches books of American Literature, at least one classic and one contemporary, so that students can begin to see the patterns. Discusses some of these pairings, such as Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter" with Toni Morrison's "Beloved" and B. Mukherjee's "The Holder of the World." (SR)

Comments on the discussion by Ginette Delandshere and Anthony Petrosky of the numerical rating of complex performances in the context of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Early Adolescence/English Language Arts assessment. Conceptualizes the discussion in terms of matching information to purpose in testing. (SLD)

Responds to Susan Brookhart's comments on the discussion of assessing complex performances by Delandshere and Petrosky. Notes that the article focused on the meaning and usefulness of scores or ratings in the context of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards assessments. (SLD)