This article examines classroom organizational patterns and the focus, content, and strategies of instruction to show that the basal reader, rather than reading comprehension, is what is being taught. A skills model of reading, the basal approach, does not reflect what readers do to make sense of text. (IAH)

Today's most competitive basal programs make use of a variety of good children's literature and provide an organized sequential plan for teaching reading. General suggestions are provided for using a basal series as the core of a holistic program. (IAH)

Describes an undergraduate women's literature course in which students write in journals. Argues that the course may resolve conflict between feminist teachers, who dislike some theorists' uncritical view of feminism, and theorists, who dislike the taint of male philosophy in feminist teaching. Suggests that course interaction can bridge these…

Describes innovative methods of learning that sometimes bring a new set of problems to deal with. Describes how faculty compromise to facilitate the best education methods possible. (JOW)

A study gathered the perceptions of 33 (of a sample of 45) occupational education deans in Illinois regarding instructional problems, instructional technologies, currency of instructors with technology, and equipment needs. Data suggest that they are aware of some technologies and delivery systems and are moderately receptive toward using…

Argues that educators must acknowledge that television has the power to elicit student empathy and that students want to understand television's power to move them. Describes three kinds of television analysis: individual detailed logs of text; group dialogue about television programing; and researched essays documenting and interpreting details…

Discusses 19 suggestions for improving the effectiveness of inservice programs, including conducting a needs assessment, developing clear objectives, showing examples of students' work, encouraging building supervisors to attend, and finding a good location for the inservice program. (RS)

Describes several curriculum resources that focus on eliminating sex stereotypes through nonsexist teaching strategies, activities, and material selection for middle and high school language arts, reading, and English classrooms. (RS)

Summarizes, in four guiding principles drawn from both research and instructional practices, the theoretical and pragmatic reasons for a portfolio approach to reading assessment. (MG)

Argues that summarizing, paraphrasing, and precis writing skills are important to the development of critical thinking and the ability to learn from text. Describes the use of precis writing in the English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) classroom. (RS)

Presents teaching variations with a word-processing package and related tools that enable teachers to develop different computer-writing pedagogies for their distinct contexts: traditional classroom, computer lab, or some combination of both. Emphasizes that teachers who re-envision teaching with regard to available technology can create dynamic…

Examines the ethics of fostering false inference. Presents and discusses a hypothetical case in which a firms's proposal seems intended to mislead, while actually stating nothing that is not literally true. (KEH)

Four principles are presented for teaching children, across age and grade levels, to write and enjoy writing: interrelating literature and writing, teaching writing as an intellectual rather than a mechanical process, emphasizing process over product, and teaching writing as a holistic process rather than a set of isolated skills. (PB)

This summary of a 1978 article presents four approaches to preparing gifted children's thinking for the future, such as showing clear relationships between their learning and potential future careers and learning about future work options. A 1989 update then emphasizes such needs as computer and technological literacy, expanded mentor programs,…

This article describes an inter-class project that paired second and fifth grade students to produce a book of their poetry developed through a program of instruction in the forms and literary aspects of poetry. Students collaborated broadly across grade levels on composition of poems and cover art for the publication. (PB)