Examines the categories of articles in the ERIC database that provide information about using literature across the curriculum. (MG)

Many approaches to literacy instruction treat language as an object of study. The curricular assumptions that inform such instruction are that language is located outside the person, extracted from context, neutral, and explicable through defined rules. An underlying assumption in many language arts classrooms is that children will not pay…

Describes the Literacy Pyramid (based on the United States Department of Agriculture food pyramid), a classification of eight instructional events, which is intended as a framework for teachers to think about the purpose of various instructional formats and about organizing time for language arts instruction. (SR)

Describes how the language arts and mathematics can be integrated as students write, solve, and discuss mathematics story problems. Offers suggestions for implementing a problem-writing program in mathematics, and provides four vignettes illustrating such mathematics instruction. (SR)

Describes Word Storm, an activity that juxtaposes the use of vocabulary words in context with the students' speculation about each word's functional application. (SR)

Shares an observation guide, created by the author, for supervisors and administrators to use to assist teachers who are working toward an integrated reading/language arts program. (MG)

Provides a rationale for integrating language arts and science instruction. Discusses some of the ways in which science instruction interfaces with language instruction in the author's classroom. (MG)

Describes two successful study groups on reading and language arts topics, one for elementary and one for secondary principals, facilitated by reading/language arts supervisors. (SR)

Presents brief descriptions of 38 children's books that are "inspiring." Organizes books in six sections: inspiring lives; inspirational characters; inspirational family times; inspirational celebrations; inspiration rising from adversity; and "too good to miss." (SR)

Offers practical activities that make spelling drill more interesting and more applicable to vocabulary development. (FL)

Describes how a group of third-grade teachers engaged in meaningful and useful curriculum development in the language arts, starting with a belief statement, and moving to program outcomes, integrated topics, specific objectives, and student exhibitions and portfolios. (SR)

Discusses reasons for the high interest in educational standards. Notes that most of the standard-setting efforts fall into one of three groups. Concludes that educators need to sort through the rhetoric to determine whether standards are indeed powerful tools for guiding educational decisions or whether they are unnecessary provocations. (RS)

Reviews two handbooks of research and focuses on what they have to offer professionals in the field of reading and language arts. (MG)

Discusses the language learning in "Workshop Pedagogy," an approach used in primary classrooms in Norway and Sweden, in which the instructional sequence and class activities move from the concrete toward the more abstract with concrete expressions given more attention. (SR)

Summarizes the development of English language arts standards and discusses the role standards might play in achieving educational reform, both in the classroom and within larger educational units. (SR)