The merits of decentralized small groups has been questioned in literature and by practicing teachers; thus this study shows the academic and identity work children do as they attempt to make meaning in these spaces. This study explores the affordances and drawbacks of decentralized small group discussion contexts in a multiage (3rd/4th) grade…

Drawing on my work in the U.S., I briefly discuss four related hallmarks of teaching for social justice in diverse classrooms, supported by research on their impact on students. They include explicitly recognizing and working with students' culture as a basis for learning, teaching key concepts in the curriculum through content and examples drawn…

This report highlights one of six language arts case study teachers whose classroom was studied for a 2-day period to observe writing instruction, to ask questions about the Kentucky Instructional Results Information System assessments, and to talk with her students about their writing. In this paper, the focus is on questions and how this…

The use of case studies can be an effective teaching device for studying other cultures. (MM)

Explores the potential of hybridity for supporting critical pedagogies that seek to transform the knowledge, texts, and identities of the school curriculum. Draws on microanalyses of oral and written texts constructed by a Latina student perceived to be struggling academically. Shows the student interweaving home, school, and peer language…

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)

Noting that a number of Australian states have adopted a functional model of language in their English syllabus documents, this PEN explains the term "functional model" and explores the implications of a functional approach to the teaching of English across all key learning areas in the Australian primary classroom. The paper notes that…

Describes the process one sixth grader went through in writing a short story and analyzes what this reveals about writing and the teaching of writing. (DD)

This case study examined how elementary teachers reacted to uncertainties inherent in a language arts reform effort. Results found that teachers fell along a continuum in their willingness to tolerate and use uncertainty within language arts reform as a springboard for thoughtful, probing inquiry. Overall, teachers demonstrated a growing…

The Michigan English Language Arts Framework (MELAF) offers an illustrative case of top-down and bottom-up confluences in curriculum policymaking. In several distinct ways, state policy met local initiatives to create dynamic partnerships to spread change. State systematic reformers looked to the grass roots for ideas and percolating initiatives.…

Presents overall conclusions from research and case studies of four children who showed indicators of emerging biliteracy and cultural sensitivity in a language arts class where the inherent link between culture and language was evident. Illustrates how the language arts instruction in a bilingual classroom affected children's growth in a second…

Offering an alternative to traditional language arts methods textbooks, this collection of 20 essays by master teachers is grouped into 4 main sections. Following an introduction, essays in the book are: (1) "Walter" (Vivian Gussin Paley); (2) "Children Become Writers: A Conversation with Two Teachers" (Cyndy Hoffman and Carol…

Science is generally not seen as a subject that produces literate readers and writers, which is a major goal in the elementary grades. The purpose of the study reported in this paper was to determine the development of preservice elementary teachers' (N=46) definitions of language arts over the course of a semester. It also looked at ways…

This paper examines themes from a cross case analysis of the Buddy System Project, a program that loans students and teachers in selected elementary classes in Indiana a networked home computer and provides schools with additional classroom computers. Qualitative data were collected from 28 homes and 19 classrooms at 4 participating schools. The…

The lessons learned by this book's authors, who observed literacy events in third- and fourth-grade classrooms, altered their vision of teaching and learning. The book shares their observations of how students engage in literacy events and construct meaning within these events, focusing on three factors that significantly influence the…