As a teacher of Bowling Green State University's English 3810, Grammar and Writing, the author is charged with teaching future language arts teachers how to teach grammar so that it actually helps their students become better writers and communicators. Because such teaching rejects the ineffective but time-honored drill-it-and-kill-it approach, in…

Argues that, as educators embrace new technology, it is important to look at the tradeoffs. Proposes and discusses five "common denominators" that cut across media and communications technologies, past and future. Offers generalizations about common elements in all language that permit analysis and critique of the new media and help students…

Proposes that the multigenre assignment is a type of writing that requires more academic skills than the minimal requisites of the traditional research paper. Notes that fostering writing as both an art and a skill demonstrates how multigenre writing can be used to teach critical analysis, documentation of sources, and aesthetic unity. Details the…

Presents a (fictional) conversation between a college English professor and a graduate student in English who is something of a purist about the language. Shows, in conversations across a semester and a half, her changing attitudes about the rules of good English, "purity" in the language, divided usage, and confusing grammar and usage. (SR)

Discusses the logic, elegance, and history of using they, them, and their as singular indefinite pronouns. Notes that, as a solution to the pronoun problem, the strength of this solution is its vagueness. Offers numerous real-life examples from publications or broadcasts and lists why it is counterproductive for English teachers to exclude this…

Explains a method for assisting preservice and new teachers in their understanding of James Moffett and Betty Jane Wagner's classic work, "Student Centered Language Arts, K-12" (1992). (TB)

Discusses Gerda Weissmann Klein's book, "All But My Life," which chronicles the author's journey from a normal young (Jewish) woman to a slave in Nazi labor camps for six years. Argues that the book is well written, has characters of depth and complexity, affirms life through the ordeal of the Holocaust, and is a popular book with…

Describes how the author uses the character George from the television comedy "Seinfeld" to offer her students a challenging inquiry into cultural studies in relation to television character analysis. Describes how the author uses a particular episode to discuss the relation between George's workplace travails and broader issues of…

Presents a conversation between the teacher of a first-year college composition course and a high school English/language arts teacher regarding what they do in the college composition course. Offers students' insights and suggestions about how they might most effectively be prepared for such a course. (SR)

Offers (from the perspective of a first-year teacher) five guidelines to student teachers to help make their student teaching semester more useful and enjoyable. Includes a response from a veteran English teacher. (SR)

Outlines a lesson for Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" which compares the Shakespearean text of Romeo and Juliet's parting (Act III, Scene V) with a Rudolph Nureyev ballet of the same episode. (MM)

Offers a brief description of the Third International Conference for Global Conversations on Language and Literacy, held in Bordeaux, France, in August 1998. Gives brief summaries of five conference presentations or sessions. (SR)

Presents classroom activities (based on "Language in Thought and Action" and intended for use at various grade and ability levels) divided into four areas of general semantics: (1) language as symbolic process; (2) meanings of words in context; (3) referential and emotive language; and (4) relationships between language and thinking.…

Argues that reflecting on important "marker" stories in people's lives by using counting ropes (based on the children's book "Knots on a Counting Rope" by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault) helps students and teachers make sense of their complex worlds. Describes how they are used in the author's language arts methods course. Describes a…

Offers a historical perspective on English instruction and suggests some modes of reintegrating communication skills and literature. (MM)