Describes the Portfolio Research Project, a three-year research project ultimately involving 20 teachers of grades 6-12 from a variety of schools, in which teachers acted as primary researchers, developing their own research projects to explore the use of portfolios to assess literature learning. Describes what participants researched, how…

Focuses on the positive impact of the professional development model that has evolved from the initial set of principles and practices James Gray laid out for the Bay Area Writing Project at the University of California in Berkeley in l974. (NH)

Describes the activities of nine English teachers who spent one school year observing and analyzing what went on in their classrooms. Defines the concept of teacher research. Provides comments on teacher research by those actively participating in it. Affirms the value and results of teacher research. (HB)

Describes what the author (a former high school English teacher) learned about teaching spelling to secondary students through a collaborative research project with a group of elementary school teachers. Analyzes four kinds of classroom-based data from that instruction, resulting in eight recommended teaching practices. Argues that well-targeted…

Examines the benefits of group discussion in English classrooms. Demonstrates how small group discussion yields qualitative learning among participants and enhances questioning skills. Advocates the growth and challenge that can come from such activities. Provides student discussion transcriptions. (HB)

Discusses the benefits of a source of guidance for teachers: language arts research. Explores an authentic classroom experience using a socio-psycholinguistic theoretical orientation and an ethnographic approach to research. (EL)

Describes the experience of one English teacher who utilized teacher research to restructure and revitalize her teaching. Describes the dissatisfaction and disillusionment of her students, attitudes that prompted the changes. Narrates the particular events and techniques used by the teacher, especially with regard to her concept of cooperative…

Relates, in third-grade students' own words, the rewards and difficulties of creative writing in the classroom. (NKA)

Discusses how a unit using a Russian novel helped students experience a sense of glasnost in their classrooms and allows teacher/researchers to examine how middle school students respond to literature. Finds that using literature from other countries forces students to examine their own values in contrast with those of the characters. (MG)