Four French language class activities are described, including a game using proverbs to review animal names and encourage comprehension; videotaping a class debate in French, to promote both exchange of ideas and student confidence before a group; a role-playing exercise in which a television news program is created; and a specialized activity to…

Four teachers from diverse early childhood environments formed a teacher research group to learn more about children's language and literacy development. This article discusses the formation of the group, the value of teacher research for understanding children's language, and the lessons learned by the participating teachers that enhanced their…

Investigates early literacy acquisition in Turkish with its phonologically transparent orthography and regular letter-sound correspondences. Findings reveal that such orthography fosters the early development of word recognition skills and that phonological awareness contributes to word recognition in the early stages of reading acquisition. (33…

Examines a community psychology course that stresses community empowerment, the myth of neutrality and objectivity in community psychology, and democratic accountability to the community. The course includes a brief history of race, class, and gender oppression in South Africa and concludes with a unit on converting social theory into practice.…

Paper considers the strategy of using aligned policies to encourage more ambitious instruction for all students from the perspective of elementary classroom teachers charged with implementing such instruction. Nine elementary teachers' responses to their local school district's efforts to press more ambitious ideas about literacy instruction are…

A survey of 2,071 first-year students in university distance-education programs found the two most common learning strategies were repetitive reading of course materials and summarization of facts. Wide variation in strategies was found, apparently determined by both learner characteristics and nature and design of instructional materials,…

Provides five fully developed library media activities that are designed for use with specific curriculum units in dramatics, reading, language arts, science, and social studies. Library media skills, curriculum objectives, grade levels, resources, instructional roles, activities and procedures, evaluation, and follow-up are describes for each…

Case study of a poor, rural Pennsylvania school district's experience with the Reading First initiative illustrates how the No Child Left Behind Act confines districts to a few federally prescribed, "scientifically proven" curricula that ignore local conditions. Sanctioned schools are negatively labeled but receive inadequate funding,…

Describes a Kingsborough Community College program that pairs an experimental sociology course with a speech and English class to help ethnically diverse students develop needed reading and writing skills, while improving their self-concept by noting parallels between their cultures and the dominant culture. Reviews course content and goals. (DMM)

Field notes and interview data were triangulated with secondary data in this ethnographic study to generate a description of social organization. A partial theory of the teacher's actions in working with a predominantly Black group of 17 low-income rural high school students was devised. Teacher effectiveness in this situation is described. (SLD)

Comments on the future of whole language, predicting that the movement will continue to expand with an increased understanding of the role that language plays in learning, a growing respect for alternate ways of knowing, and a renewed interest in curriculum. (BB)

Describes the objectives, implementation methods, and classroom methods used by high school teachers of English participating in the Permantapan Kerja Guru (PKG): Strengthening of the Work of Teachers Project in Indonesia. The PKG is a teacher development program intended to help teachers develop their confidence and personal and professional…

Maintains that, as students develop, they can begin to acquire the skills of historians by investigating not only the facts of history but the human motivations the why of history. Provides recommended resources for helping student construct historical meaning, local historical and community resources, and for family history. (CFR)

Presents six curriculum guides for mathematics, reading/language arts, social studies, and science. Each guide highlights library media skills objectives, subject area objectives, grade levels, resources, instructional roles, sample activities, evaluation, and follow-up activities. (AEF)

Encapsulates a series of verbatim statements made by young musicians about the joy music has brought to their lives. The musicians, all students at Black Mountain Middle School in San Diego, California, exhibit a wide range of responses discussing their commitment, hard work, and sense of accomplishment. (MJP)