Students in a senior (grade 12) basic English class were not motivated to read books unless required to do so by their teacher; they did little or no reading for pleasure. To increase recreational reading and instill a love of reading in the 17 subjects, a practicum, in the form of a reading program lasting about 2 months, developed strategies…

At Clark State Community College (CSCC), in Ohio, faculty in the Commercial Art and English departments have investigated and debated the best uses for a Mac Lab. Computer needs for the Commercial Art Program were determined through visits to local businesses that produce art on a commercial level; to local secondary school commercial art…

As a result of the Morgan-Hart Class Size Reduction Act of 1989, San Juan (California) Unified School District was able to reduce the number of students in freshman English classes from over 30 to 20 in the spring semester 1991. This reduction of at least 10 students per class was a welcome change for high school students and their teachers. The…

Information on current trends and issues informally discussed and then delineated by the directors of six National Council of Teachers of English commissions, is presented in this 12th annual report. The commissions and their directors are: (1) Commission on Curriculum (Dorothy King); (2) Commission on Composition (Christine Kline); (3) Commission…

This anthology of literature from the many American cultures as well as cultures around the world is intended for use in today's college composition and introductory literature courses. Offering a blend of classic favorites and selections from other cultures, the anthology contains some 300 stories, poems, and plays from the six habitable…

The breach between university and public school educators is wide, but can be bridged so that students are not deprived of effective English education. First, public school teachers should acknowledge that university educators are teachers as well, and university educators must tailor their pre-service and in-service classes to meet the needs of…

The Dow Jones Newspaper Fund Intensive Journalistic Writing Institute, a 2-week summer workshop for Ohio high school teachers of journalism conducted in June 1991, demonstrated that the team of journalistic writing techniques and current composition pedagogy is unbeatable in fostering critical reading and writing skills. The institute focused on…

At Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC) in Massachusetts, the Learning Center is the heart of the college's instructional program. The Center houses programs for credit at all academic levels, including some classroom work for 40% of the faculty. The Center is a delivery system for individualized, personalized curriculum at both remedial and…

This book offers guidance to elementary school teachers in Australia on establishing an integrated learning environment in which students are encouraged to confront and consider important ideas and decide the most effective ways of communicating these ideas to others. An approach is presented that seeks to maintain a balance between structured…

The essays and resources in this book are designed to help high school English teachers adapt their own classroom lessons for teaching about genocide and intolerance. Beginning with guidelines developed by the National Council of teachers of English's Committee on Teaching about Genocide and Intolerance, the 16 essays present approaches to…

Changes in student perceptions over the first year of high school form the basis of this study. Self- and task-perceptions, as well as affect and utility judgments, are measured in relation to English and mathematics, since the transition to high school has been found to impact negatively on students' self-concept in these domains. The impact of…

A teacher training course must serve as a model of turning theory into practice--a student-centered, collaborative effort involving active learners taking charge of their own learning--and that includes the teacher as well as the students. Only by active reading, writing, listening, and talking about these ideas--as opposed to merely being told to…

Reading comprehension is an important skill that every student needs in order to be successful. It is directly influenced by how readers construct a representation of the information that they are taking in. Overwhelmingly, the processing strategies found in research can appropriately fit into the Into, Through, Beyond strategies used in the…

Three studies were conducted at San Jose City College, in San Jose, California, to measure the persistence of new college students enrolled in entry-level English courses (i.e., English 321, English 322, and English 330) in fall 1988. Specifically, the studies examined students' persistence from their initial English course through Transfer Level…

The comments of a student new to Advanced Placement courses convinced a teacher of Advanced Placement English that opening up her class to all students was not enough--the teacher had to learn how to teach an untracked English class. Three basic strategies for teaching the class took shape: the teacher spent a great deal of time modeling tasks;…