Reviews the 25-year history of regional conferences on the teaching of English at two-year colleges. Identifies the role of the National Council of Teachers of English and the Conference on College Composition and Communication in the evolution of the conferences. Highlights hazards posed by tuition increases, reduced government funding, and…

Presents a dramatic dialog between two fictitious characters, one exhibiting an artistic sensibility, the other demonstrating a scientific sensibility. Foregrounds their divergent reactions to an exhibition of the treasures of Tutankhamen. (HB)

Dramatizes the attempts, including hunger strikes, to get the University of California at Los Angeles to create a department of Chicano studies. Considers the difficulty of dealing compassionately with protesters when faced with institutional budget cuts. (HB)

Argues that elementary instructors of writing should aggressively seek parental involvement in teaching children to write well. Presents a list of activities that parents can do with children to foster writing development. Lists strategies for parent-teacher communications. (HB)

Argues that reading has dominance over writing in the academy and that this imbalance is unnecessary. Explores the site of conflict between reading and writing. Suggests how to end this conflict and thereby create a more productive interaction between reading and writing. (HB)

Considers the way one writing teacher helped students realize that they can make a difference in public policy decisions and issues. Argues that students be given a choice in choosing writing topics. Claims that writers must have an emotional investment in what they produce. Advocates democracy in the classroom. (HB)

Considers the benefits for kindergarten through college teachers of a two-week interdisciplinary institute called the "Truckee River Community Project." Outlines the objectives and methods of this project, which focused on an intensive study of the Truckee River of the High Sierras in Nevada. Argues for the value of the personal…

Details a program designed to encourage research projects aimed at promoting "higher literacy" carried out by middle and high school teachers of one Colorado school district. Argues for the value of individual and collaborative action-research projects by teachers. Describes the experience of the program. (HB)

Discusses the ways that middle school English teachers can use popular teen culture within the context of general English instruction. Suggests bringing television, film, comics, advice columns, and teen magazines into the English classroom. (HB)

Describes the way one English teacher used a variety of stories to introduce students to the conventions of narrative fiction, with specific attention paid to the problem of the unreliable narrator. Claims that teaching the truth of fiction depends upon a clear appraisal of the story's narrator. (HB)

Describes how one English teacher celebrated the power of students' personal writing to clarify and validate their own personal life experiences. Argues for the use of personal narrative in teaching students to develop as writers and thinkers. (HB)

Considers the pros and cons of Writing across the Curriculum programs. Debates the issues from adversarial positions. Describes how two teachers (a composition instructor and a chemistry professor who each represented differing views on such programs) experienced changes in their outlooks over a seven-year period. (HB)

Describes the affinities between reader response theory and the proper objectives of English instruction. Describes students not as potential literary scholars but as curious people needing personal experiences with reading and writing. Outlines a model for teaching literature focused on this conception. (HB)

Describes the many kinds of materials that English teachers can draw upon to enrich and expand students' experiences with literature. Outlines ancillary materials used to supplement the study of William Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar." (HB)

Describes the methods by which one teacher prepared eighth-grade language arts students for the Florida Writing Assessment exam. Considers the pros and cons of such activities. Advocates activities in which students are asked to evaluate each other's writing. (HB)