Examines social aspects of literacy learning; presents some thoughts on reading development and literacy instruction. Suggests that teachers should promote literacy by incorporating students' interests in their activities. Developing chat rooms, posting messages on the Internet, and making a radio play for younger students all provide meaningful…

A teacher of preschool and kindergarten students with hearing impairments recounts her increasing use of whole language, process-oriented teaching methods. Considers the teacher's new role, the classroom environment, use of thematic units, emergent reading, emergent writing, and evaluation. (DB)

Discusses mixed ability teaching within the British comprehensive foreign language educational system. Findings reveal that the British system will not soon return to selective modern language teaching (MLT) focusing on grammar and translation, and it is concluded that differentiation is the key to successful MLT for the next century. (CK)

Recommends turning some of the more tedious aspects of elementary instrumental rehearsals (particularly playing scales) into games. Describes a number of educational games that can be constructed around these activities, including a "Wheel of Fortune" parody. (MJP)

Describes a curriculum development project completed by undergraduate education majors. The project consists of a picture or graphic organizer serving as a focal point surrounded by citations to non-fiction and fiction sources related to that point. An accompanying essay allowed the students to justify their selections. (MJP)

Reports on a teaching method that combined assigned daily newspaper readings with weekly informal journal writing to teach basic sociological concepts. Assigned journal topics acted as a link between class material, the newspaper stories, and other texts. Student response was overwhelmingly enthusiastic. Provides several examples of the journal…

Provides four fully developed library media activities that are designed for use with specific curriculum units in reading, language arts, science, and social studies. Library media skills, curriculum objectives, grade levels, instructional roles, procedures, evaluation, and follow-up are described for each activity. (LRW)

Classroom interactions by two Black female second-grade teachers were observed to determine whether these teachers differed in their responses to students who showed Strong (high) versus Weak (low) Black and Nonstandard English usage. The teachers' level of knowledge of Black English was reflected in the success of their interactions. (TJH)

Describes study of undergraduate teacher education majors which was designed to examine the function of text density level (high, low, or learner controlled) and various learner characteristics in learning from expository text in computer based instruction (CBI). Selection of print media versus CBI is discussed, pretests and posttests are…

Describes strategies which teachers can model to help their students become cognitively aware of language. Suggests that teachers model writing and reading strategies at the same time they demonstrate word processing functions. (MG)

In March, after two years of debate that followed complaints by minority students, Stanford's faculty voted to replace the university's year-long Western culture requirement with a new requirement called "Cultures, Ideas and Values." Courses will be required to give attention to the issues of race, gender, and class. (MLW)

To study impact of bilingual education programs on reading and mathematics achievement, 278 Mexican-American seventh and eighth grade students were examined over a three-year period. The effects of the following variables on posttest scores were examined: (1) pretest scores; (2) gender; and (3) group (bilingual or mainstream). (BJV)

As part of Hawaii's PETOM (Preservice Education for Teachers of Minorities) program, future educators are taught not only to teach but also to enjoy reading and writing. The article explains how PETOM students learn the joys and struggles of reading and writing and learn to become teachers of the subjects. (SM)

Describes the language-arts assessment instrument developed and piloted by a small urban school district that has a high percentage of students learning English as a Second Language. Developing the instrument, training teachers to be scorers, and the actual piloting of the reading and writing portions of the evaluation are detailed. (SLD)

Presents the following six articles on working with parents: (1) "Conversing with Parents through Dialogue Journals"; (2) "Reading with Your Child at Home"; (3) "Dads by the Dozens"; (4) "Parents in Your Classroom: A Valuable Literacy Link"; (5) "Inclusion: But They Still Won't Play with Me"; and…