Culturally relevant and sustaining pedagogy is an asset-based approach to teaching and learning. In this way, students' identities, languages, and cultures are centered in the learning experience, creating a sense of belonging. The authors observed culturally relevant and sustaining approaches to teaching and learning while visiting schools in New…

Suggests activities that reading staff developers can use to "unfreeze" staff members, building an interest in and a state of readiness for the program steps to be discussed. The suggested activities call for the active mental and physical involvement of staff members. (GT)

Describes the development and implementation of a professional development program extending through the school year to help teachers prepare for the state's upcoming portfolio mandate. Describes a powerful collaborative model of professional development that recognizes the value inherent in the shared learning that occurs when divergent…

Describes an inservice technique that models for teachers how they can use the Directed Reading Thinking Activity to develop students' predictive strategies. (FL)

Concludes that an ongoing, onsite, supervised inservice program providing regular diagnostic feedback to teachers doubled the reading comprehension gain scores of low SES Black intermediate-grade students from a large urban school district as compared to the gains of students whose teachers did not participate in program. (FL)

Describes what happened and what was learned when 13 urban elementary school teachers, their principal, and a researcher embarked on a year-long inquiry project that involved meeting as a monthly study group, reading articles, and keeping journals about their teaching. Discusses the contradictions and dilemmas of keeping journals, and rethinks…