Examines how prospective teachers can better understand the importance of interpretive moves and become more adept at asking literary questions. Argues that skills instruction often takes away from literary discourse. (MM)

Examines the reading practices and socially influenced responses of six eighth graders in a literature discussion group. Recounts the responses of the students' interpretive community. (MS)

Argues that literacy teachers should take letter play seriously in conjunction with invented spelling to help their students learn how letters and sounds relate. (RS)

Examines a fourth-grade teacher's interactions with a child, showing that actually allowing students to use their point of view when discussing literature is a real challenge that requires most classroom teachers to rethink their roles as readers and listeners. (RS)

Outlines what reader response might look like in the classroom. Presents four basic assumptions of reader response theory. Discusses ways reader response approaches to literature help students grow both in the depth and breadth of their responses to literature, and as strategic readers. (SR)

Finds that the 35 middle-school language-arts teachers studied agreed that Self Selected Reading (SSR) is an important way to improve students' reading attitudes and achievement, but that their schools rarely provided funds for buying student-preferred materials, and that finding time for SSR was difficult because of the pressure to prepare for…

Kindergarten teachers could help educators and researchers by creating opportunities and experiences in classroom settings to offer literacy learning. Children, however, learn literacy when immersed in classroom environments that support natural literacy experiences throughout the day.

Contains representative articles, ads, and editorials from issues of "The Elementary English Review," and "Elementary English," both precursors to "Language Arts," from 1944-1953. Selections reflect educational concerns still relevant today, such as the impact of audiovisual equipment and letting children write to…

Examines the interaction between a preschool girl and her father during story reading time. Argues that such observations can lead to an understanding of ways in which children become more mature readers-thinkers and enable teachers to match reading expectations to the students' reading level. (HTH)

Examines notions and examples of instruction that can inhibit language growth, arguing that reading and writing curricula can be designed so that children are provided the freedom to explore language and grow as language learners in much the same way they learned oral language. (HTH)

Examines a professional journal's treatment of the relationship between elementary teachers and commercial reading materials. Findings are divided into 10-year increments from 1924 to the present. (HTH)

Six educational leaders--Patricia J. Cianciolo, Lee Bennett Hopkins, Nancy Larrick, Alan C. Purves, Morton Schindel, and James R. Squire--offer reflections on signficiant developments in children's literature during the 1970s, their hopes for the 1980s, and references that constitute required reading for elementary language arts teachers. (ET)

Discusses recent research on story structure in terms of developmental differences in comprehension and presents some suggestions on how this new evidence can be applied to teaching strategies in the classroom. (Author)

Clarifies misconceptions about the Ann Arbor, Michigan court decision on the teaching of students with Black dialects. Explores the impact of teacher attitudes toward substandard English on teaching students with Black dialects and lists ERIC sources for increasing knowledge and sensitivity to differing dialects. (HTH)