The controversial and complicated nature of the "N" word is examined in a multicultural classroom project. Utilizing both old and new literature, pop culture, historical lenses, and contemporary interpretations, the word proves extremely relevant in today's language arts classroom. By examining students' perceptions and experiences as well as the…

This article centers the stories of two eighth grade students in the context of a social action literacy project. Their teacher designed curriculum that scaffolded opportunities for them to address English language arts standards while speaking out for social change. The students' responses to the project reveal their civic literacy practices, as…

A fictional account used to demonstrate the importance of making reading interesting and meaningful to children. (DD)

Discusses how interviews with fifth-grade students about their literacy journeys--the experiences that led them to where they are now in reading and writing--gave great insight (to their teacher as well as to many other teachers) into what makes language arts instruction "take." Conveys the importance of authentic literacy experiences. (SR)

Discusses some of the best current books dealing with handicapped children. (DD)

Presents highlights of four "learning biographies" resulting from observations of children's writing in response to literature. The observations indicated that the connections children made to texts in reading and writing and how these are used to develop writing strategies and competence were related to their motivations and…

Presents the findings and implications of a study of the interest patterns of fourth and fifth grade children as they pertain to the content of the short film. (DD)

Notes how the current emphasis on language instruction perpetuates the dominant culture. Explores the meanings first-grade children take from their oral language learning experiences and considers possible implications of those meanings and of the resistance shown by students to this production and reproduction of culture. (HTH)

Describes how a seventh-grade teacher was able to devise a final examination that both reflected the goals of his process-oriented writing class and met the requirements of his school board. (ARH)

Illustrates how poems engage readers in heightened experiences of the world and of language itself. Shows some of the strategies that adults and elementary students employed when reading and responding to poems: summarizing the poem, entering in and opening out, entering the world of the poem, opening to the outside world, finding rich…

Examines materials in the ERIC database on the Suggestopedia method of instruction which bypasses the mind's barriers to learning and increases learning and retention. (HTH)

Discusses student responses to and interactions with a professional children's writer who visited a fifth grade writing workshop. Describes the emerging confidence as writers of the children and the classroom teacher as a result of the author's visits. (HTH)

Argues that literacy in the 1980s means the power to use language for one's own purposes as well as those of society. Explores the classroom phase of exercising this power through the critical commentary and discussion of social issues of three students in a lower-class London school. (HTH)

Explores the effects of positive and negative reinforcement in the classroom and the role of language in the "celebration of learning." (HTH)

Contends that children assimilate enormous amounts of information from society. Reveals the presence, in one child's fictional piece of writing, of complex layers of gender (including gender stereotypes), societal tensions, and economic social forces which one might expect to be beyond the grasp of a seven-year-old. (SR)