With the passage of the "No Child Left Behind Act" (NCLB), the emphasis is for all children to reach proficient levels. Since they already work above this benchmark, the needs of gifted students are often de-emphasized. If teachers define learning as moving forward from the knowledge a student already has, they find that those who are at…

Takes readers to a second grade classroom to see how children's meanings of a story grow as they engage in a variety of related activities. Discusses how the meaning of a story grows to become multifaceted as children use the story for different personal and social purposes in the classroom. (MG)

This book suggests that both students and teachers should think constructively about classroom literacy practices through the use of diagnostic-reflective portfolios--the result of a process of collection and reflection in which teachers and students collaborate to demonstrate a learner's growth over time. The book tells the story of a…

This paper discusses a radically different set of assumptions to improve educational outcomes for disadvantaged students. It is argued that disadvantaged children, when exposed to carefully organized thinking-oriented instruction, can acquire the traditional basic skills in the process of reasoning and solving problems. The paper is presented in…