Argues that teachers can ensure against the attacks of censors by instituting formal policies for material selection in English curricula. Gives information about those who actively seek to censor and what their arguments are in favor of censorship. Claims that yielding to censorship degrades the teaching profession. (HB)

Provides a working definition for assessment as it relates to higher education. Contrasts what assessment should be with what it should not be. Gives several suggestions for administrators just beginning assessment activities. (HB)

Recounts the process and narrates the steps taken by the English department at Ursinus College, Pennsylvania, in its major renovation of its outdated English curriculum. Describes the working conditions of the department and the newly devised curriculum. (HB)

Tells stories, somewhat fictionalized, that may help English chairs frame the discussion on curricular revision. Describes the institutional and management issues chairs need to explore when they think about initiating the curriculum debate. Considers departmental structural issues, campus structural issues, organizational issues, and a set of…

Considers several ways to think about the teacher's role in the teaching of reading. Notes that a curriculum built on critical literacy is one that highlights diversity and difference while calling attention to how people are constructed as literate beings. Argues that students should position themselves as social activists who challenge the…

Shares the author's frustrations and some of the complexities involved with constructing a critical literacy curriculum. Explores what might have happened if she had taken up the issues that mattered in her students' lives as text to form the basis for a critical literacy curriculum. (SC)

Aims to conceptualize issues of text selection and censorship in different terms from those in which it has been constructed by Australian media. Asks how texts get used in classrooms and about the nature of classrooms as sites for negotiating issues of meaning and value. Argues for a culturally inclusive curriculum that is responsive to students'…

This paper deals with a peer supervision program developed by the members of the English department of Brattleboro Union High School (Vermont) which has resulted in a sense of collegiality, shared purpose, and a renewed feeling of professionalism among the teachers. The paper describes the ways in which these teachers developed a program to…

Evaluates "English for Ages 5 to 11," a document assessing English education for elementary students in Great Britain. Criticizes the document's conception of English, as well as its proposed attainment targets. (MM)

Explores a central conflict in the field of "writing across the disciplines": voice versus discourse, or process versus form. Argues that this conflict is founded on a false dichotomy. Argues that the concept of the "rhetoric of inquiry" is capable of connecting the two sides of the conflict in a new synthesis. (HB)

Examines the notion that much of what is taught in English classes is irrelevant to the challenges faced by today's students. Questions whether literary study serves students needing literacies outside the school. Considers the social context of literacy. Reconceives English instruction to provide relevant literacy skills. (HB)

Reports on the guidelines governing the formation and operation of affiliates of the National Council of Writing Program Administrators. (HB)

Discusses how what started out as a term project on a female Canadian artist changed the way the author writes poetry and how she teaches her students. Suggests that, rather than acquisition of knowledge being the primary focus of school, students need to be in conversation with knowledge--composing and creating their own understandings with…

Listening skills are enormously important both in and of themselves and as correlates with reading comprehension. Storytelling is a very productive approach for encouraging listening skills. Perhaps the focal point relative to promoting listening competencies rests with generating appropriate attitudes among listeners. Directions for listening to…

Internships in technical writing offer students an opportunity to apply the principles of technical communication learned in the classroom to on-the-job situations. The internship program at Oklahoma State University gives students practical experience needed to meet the demands of the world outside of academics, even at a time when companies and…