College composition instructors need special knowledge and skills in teaching black students. After pointing out the difference between black dialect and standard English, teachers need to discuss with students the practical reasons for using standard English in writing. To avoid being arbitrary or patronizing during this discussion, instructors…

Reports on teacher education calling for reform of undergraduate courses and curricula in arts and sciences, while eliminating the undergraduate degree in education do not adequately reflect the realities of the classroom. The Carnegie and the Holmes reports, among others, claim that prematurely specializing undergraduate education students causes…

One of a series dealing with current issues affecting language arts instruction, this paper focuses on thinking skills. The paper begins by raising two issues: whether thinking skills should be taught as part of each subject area, as a separate skill, or both, and whether English and language arts teachers have a special role in the teaching of…

Eleven essays concerning the teaching of the language arts, ranging in length from 3 to 16 pages, are collected in this document. "Oral Communication and the Learner" considers students' needs as learners and effective methods for teaching oral communication. "The Teacher and the Psychology of Learning" draws on behaviorism, humanism, and the…

Writing textbooks are changing to reflect the curricular shift from an emphasis on product to an emphasis on process. The product approach focused mainly on surface features and used an instructional strategy of testing writing rather than teaching it. The process approach focuses on what effective writers do as they move through the stages of…

To avoid the demise of adolescent literature, educators must revise their way of thinking to include a great many paperback media tie-in books in the English curriculum. Among the possible reasons many teachers have thus far neglected media tie-ins are their beliefs that the tie-ins are inferior literature or that they are just another gimmick.…

Reviews five books by James Moffett, discussing ways these practical applications of his development theory can be adopted as a course, a program, or a curriculum. Presents Moffett's work as a holistic integrated arts approach that offers a "real writing" alternative to such external controls as standardized tests, formalized writing…

Examines positions on English education reform in the early 1900s, specifically the following professional concerns: finance, curriculum, teacher recruitment, and professional leadership. Notes that attitudes and circumstances of the past are repeated in the present. (JG)

Teaching can no longer be defined as going into the classroom, shutting the door, and doing an exemplary job. Teachers--especially teachers of English--can and should have an influence upon the curriculum by assuming responsibility for purposes, programs, and progress made. (Author/TE)

Decries the back to basics movement and suggests that it is not the place of those with doctoral degrees to teach spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Proposes that the proper place for such instruction is in the primary grades. (RBW)

Faculty of the New York University School of Education, Health, Nursing, and Arts Professions describe curricular changes since World War II in subjects that have traditionally been included in high school studies: English, math, social studies, science, the arts, and foreign languages. (Editor)

In developing a college English course on reading and writing in the information age that would make use of the Internet and cyberspace-based science fiction, a professor encountered considerable resistance from colleagues who did not understand the language and concepts being used and who worried about crossing the boundaries into other…

English instructors must discover methods that inspire culturally diverse university students to utilize intelligent reading strategies, even when students feel like inferior outcasts. A class was designed at the University of Alaska to teach reading strategies. The typical class consisted of 20-25 students ranging in age from 18 to 60 and…

Developed to promote the consistency and quality of English instruction and to support the English-language colleges of Quebec in this direction, the report presents an overview of English instruction at the college level and presents recommendations to the Minister of Higher Education and Science (MHES) and the English-language colleges. Part I…

Just as student centered, collaborative classrooms give students the power to direct their own learning, so too a collaborative, partnership model for the writing staff leads to empowerment and professionalism. At Western Illinois University, involving temporary instructors in the process of curriculum development not only served to boost their…