This paper draws on data from questionnaires and participant discussion posts on WebCT to show how native and non-native English speaking student teachers explore the topic of peer feedback. Engaging in peer feedback for their own draft papers provides student teachers an opportunity to gain experience, then reflect on their experience and…

Students in intermediate and middle level grades are often caught up in the exciting visual images and auditory stimuli that are a part of all their everyday communication and learning experiences. As a group of students who are growing intellectually and socially in the midst of, and through, predominantly media messages, they require reading and…

Validation of assessments intended to improve instruction and learning should include evidence of instructional sensitivity. This study investigated the instructional sensitivity of a standards-based ninth-grade performance assessment that required students to write an essay about conflict in a literary work. Before administering the assessment,…

In the report entitled "Educating School Leaders," Arthur Levine (2005) criticizes leadership preparation programs as "inadequate to appalling," citing, among other issues, the proliferation of off campus programming, the weakening of standards, and an unwillingness to engage in any measure of "systematic…

The place of literary criticism in the education of pre-service English language teachers in EFL contexts is rarely discussed in the related literature. Traditional view of teaching criticism involves learning of the tenets of the critical school and applying them to literary texts. In this paper, an application of teaching criticism is discussed…

An interdisciplinary course integrating political science, literature, and film is used at Bellarmine College in Kentucky as a vehicle for examining politics on the local, state, national and international levels. Four novels and their analogous films are used, corresponding to the respective political level--"The Last Hurrah,""All…

A study compared children's literature which was both popular with children and had received literary awards to those works which achieved only literary awards. Seventeen works of fiction were analyzed and categorized for themes, style, and structure. One adult and one child were interviewed for each work and asked questions about their opinion…

The underlying constructs for an experimental battery (EB) consisting of artistic judgment tests--the Design Judgment Test (DJT), the Visual Designs Test (VDT), Proportion Appraisal (PA), and the Visual Aesthetic Sensitivity Test--were studied. Scores for 1,686 clients of the Johnson O'Connor Research Foundation's aptitude-testing service were…

Discusses the results of a content analysis of fantasy books for children and young adults that was conducted to determine the similarities, if any, that exist among recent fantasy books. Characteristics examined include type of main character, type of conflict, setting, presence of magic or the supernatural, and point of view. (11 references)…

This class activity sought to help English methods teachers in training to gain a better understanding about the spectrum of beliefs concerning of teaching English literature in secondary schools. The activity in this study asks the student as an intending secondary English language arts teacher to watch two video recordings of the "Once more…

Presents the text of an interview with Chicano leader Bert Corona regarding his rhetorical style and the role of oratory in the Chicano movement and Chicano tradition. (JMF)

Vietnam War literature offers students a unique mix of themes which in many ways speak directly to them as, perhaps, no other literature is able to. This literature can help them better understand literature, history, the world they live in, and themselves, as well as the Vietnam War. A sequence of classroom activities (beginning with an…

Reports results of survey questioning "School Library Journal's" reviewers of children's literature in four main areas: review aspects (relating plot, commenting on literary quality); reviewer roles (reviewer, critic); review practices; and personal and professional background (demographic questions). The survey questionnaire and 38…

Presents the text of an interview with Chicano leader Jose Angel Gutierrez in which he discusses his background, rhetorical style, and political beliefs. Compares himself with other Chicano and Black leaders. (JMF)

Designed to assess the level of thematic profundity of a reader's response to short stories, the Literary Profundity Test consists of four very short stories, each with four endings representing one of the five levels in the Literary Profundity Scale: physical, mental, moral, psychological, and philosophical. Nine experts have agreed that each…