In the second decade of the 21st century, information has been globalized, digitized, and sped up to move at the speed of thought. Being literate in this new world means programming personal websites, sending e-mails from mobile devices and spending hours communicating via virtual social networks. Our students are products of this world. However,…

Describes the uses of riddles with elementary school students to create interest, develop literacy skills, promote learning in the content areas, and have fun. Notes 16 books of riddles. (SR)

Discusses why elephant riddles are viable catalysts for word play and language development in the primary grades. Explores some relationships between children's thinking and elephant riddles. Offers some suggestions for incorporating them as a regular part of the classroom flow. (SR)

Shares an observation guide, created by the author, for supervisors and administrators to use to assist teachers who are working toward an integrated reading/language arts program. (MG)

Discusses reasons for the high interest in educational standards. Notes that most of the standard-setting efforts fall into one of three groups. Concludes that educators need to sort through the rhetoric to determine whether standards are indeed powerful tools for guiding educational decisions or whether they are unnecessary provocations. (RS)

Summarizes the development of English language arts standards and discusses the role standards might play in achieving educational reform, both in the classroom and within larger educational units. (SR)

Points out why drill work has a role in the language arts classroom, explores the possibilities of using a microcomputer to give children drill work, and discusses the characteristics of a good software program, along with faults found in many software programs. (FL)

Describes the instructional procedures used in a method to enhance children's concept of story. (FL)

Argues that it is important to consider just what the written language requires of learners so that educators may understand reading and writing disabilities and find appropriate methods of remediation. To do so, a theory of written language must be developed that regards the alphabetic systems as just one particular development among several that…

Offers four responses from readers of this journal to the question of whether ability grouping in first grade is negative. (SR)

Argues that the unique interrelationship of art, reading, and writing offers teachers a variety of opportunities to nurture students' artistic imagination. Describes several strategies that can be used to explore images through writing and to explore images through reading. (SR)

Discusses four books written by teachers for other teachers that share stories of expertise, of new discoveries, of interpretations and perceptions. Argues that these stories will help new teachers feel less isolated and lonely and will help them to become better teachers and learners. (SR)

Reports that reading instruction in Taiwan resembles the approach taken in North America and involves basal readers and integrated language arts activities. (FL)

Views the classroom teacher's role as collaborator in research and as individual scholar from a historical perspective, considers some of the values and shortcomings in these trends, and suggests some projects in the language arts that may be of interest to the teacher scholar. (HOD)

Explores the considerable benefits of reading poetry, why poetry is often neglected, and some of the ways the author brings poetry and children together, making poetry an integral part of the curriculum. Offers a list of recommended poetry volumes, as well as a list of recommended professional reading/supporting poetry-instruction in the…