How did elementary language arts teachers of yore respond to policy issues in their own day? A review of the first two volumes of Language Arts, then called The Elementary English Review (1924-1925), suggests the journal served as a dynamic and productive space for language arts teachers and scholars to share their work and debate its merit. Much…

In recent years, scholars and other educators have encouraged language arts teachers to include LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) issues and texts in their classrooms. Despite these efforts, scholars have pointed out that LGBT perspectives are seldom included in language arts pedagogy. Studies of teacher attitudes toward addressing LGBT…

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…

Presents a conversation with Dorothy Watson, the 2002 Outstanding Educator in the Language Arts recipient. Hopes that this profile will provide insight into Dorothy Watson and her intellectual foundations, her humaneness, and her passion for teaching and learning. (SG)

Offers a peek inside the journals kept by a well-known language-arts educator, which he uses as a repository for his thoughts, drawings, articles of interest, notes from conversations with others on his own work, the work of others, and education in general. Shows how the journal is an "audit trail" of its owner's learning. (SR)

Discusses how one teacher's experiential learning as a parent and writer provide more insight into his classroom teaching than do consultations with "expert" sources. (HTH)

Reports on a study of 10 primary grade teachers in four multi-age classrooms (formed in response to a Kentucky state mandate to implement non-graded, multi-age, primary programs for children ages 5-9). Examines what teachers did to make language arts instruction work, and their continuing efforts and struggles to meet the needs of a wide variety…

Describes how teachers can demonstrate love for their students. Relates anecdotes showing loving interactions between students and teachers. (MM)

Describes the positive attitude toward teaching of a writing instructor who intends to continue teaching in spite of receiving a Newberry award for her book. (HTH)

Discusses concerns (curricular, diversity, and community concerns) teachers have about multiculturalism and multicultural education in the language arts classroom. Discusses also teachers' ideas and solutions to these concerns. (SR)

Argues that, to develop a community of readers of literature, teachers must go beyond an approach to literature that merely treats it as an excuse for a comprehension skills lesson or a social studies exercise. Illustrates the argument with the children's book "Maniac Magee" by Jerry Spinelli. (SR)

Explores the different perspectives classroom teachers and researchers bring to any collaboration, noting that the relationship between the two should be symbiotic and that the problems of practice should inform the questions that researchers ask, while the issues addressed in research should help teachers obtain a clearer perspective on teaching.…

Recalls the energy and dedication of a homely first grade teacher. (HTH)

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…

Presents the author's acceptance speech when named 2000 Outstanding Educator in the Language Arts by the Elementary Section of the National Council of Teachers of English. Shares her life story to argue that teachers' actions have the potential to add, deepen, or change current trends and events within the struggle for educational justice. (SG)