In the May 2009 issue of "English Journal", we reported on our analysis of data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress to provide a first look at changes in the teaching of writing over the past 30 years. In this article, we provide a more detailed look, drawing on data collected from visits to 260 English, math, social…

Summarizes and discusses the implications of the Writing Research Unit and the Writing Across the Curriculum Project at the University of London Institute of Education. (DD)

Discusses studies that examine literature instruction in U.S. secondary schools. Examines studies of required book-length works, titles recently taught, the importance of book-length texts, sources of literary materials, and selections included in popular anthologies. Concludes that the curriculum as a whole remains relatively traditional in its…

Highlights some of the ways in which ERIC can be helpful in preservice and continuing education as a curriculum resource, an indicator of trends, and a source of research. (DD)

This digest discusses the highlights of a study which surveyed (in 1988) the book-length works taught in high school English programs in public, parochial, and independent schools and then compared the survey results with results of a similar survey in 1963. The digest reports that the 10 titles most frequently taught in public, Catholic, and…

Describes the contradictory impulses embedded in the secondary English curriculum. Considers changing notions of the curriculum and recent trends in curriculum design and theory. Outlines the prominent features of successful curricula based on the concept of engendering coherent conversational domains. (HB)

Describes the lessons that can be learned from the recent history of assessment in the English language arts. Considers the possible future uses to which assessment might be put in the near future. Explores the assessment activities of the National Assessment of Educational Progress over the past several years. (HB)

Studies how experienced teachers of literature created a sense of continuity and coherence in a curriculum over relatively long periods of time. Finds that although the classrooms created a stable set of domain conventions, similarity in broad topics and goals within the curriculum masked great diversity at the level of classroom practice. (NH)

A study portrayed the methods and materials used in literature instruction in schools in a representative sample of schools nationally. It examined the contrasts among groups of schools that might be expected to differ in their approaches to the teaching of literature, and provided a portrait of "typical" practice. A random sample of 650…

Offers a 30-year retrospective on the evolution of a researcher and of the field of English teaching. Discusses the tradition of scholarship that seeks to ground its approaches to teaching and learning in the best of their understandings of language use and language learning, drawing broadly on rhetoric, linguistics, sociology, literary criticism,…

The typical approach to curriculum in the English language arts fits well with the traditional, content-centered approach to instruction. Such an approach to curriculum, however, is appropriate to a pedagogy that construes knowledge as fixed and transmittable but inappropriate to a pedagogy that views learning as constructed by the learner rather…

Focuses on the writing instruction which the 1977 NCTE Achievement Award- winning students had received, concluding that writing frequency, type of assigned writing topics, and class size affect writing instruction and that successful writers are dedicated readers. (DD)

Considers how to keep students engaged in the disciplines of English--literature, composition, and language study--in an era of MTV, video games, and the Internet. Discusses ways of ensuring the cohesiveness of the curriculum and instruction. Suggests using diverse perspectives to deepen discussion and enhance learning. (SG)

Discusses the standards controversy as it relates to school curriculum. Discusses studying curriculum in action. Characterizes curriculum as a domain for conversation. Outlines four general principles for curriculum evaluation: quality of contributions to the conversation; quantity of material to be dealt with; relatedness of the contributions to…

Presenting findings from a wide-ranging study, this book considers the present state of literature teaching in American middle and secondary schools. Probing both context and the instructional approaches, the book shows a discipline staffed by teachers better educated than their predecessors but carrying heavy class loads and isolated from current…