This study documents to what extent writing on a blog in a networked learning environment could influence the affective variables of elementary-school students' writing. The framework is grounded more specifically in theory of self-determination (Deci & Ryan, 1985), relationship to writing (Chartrand & Prince, 2009) and the transactional…

The classroom-based research discussed in this article focuses on how elementary students' experiences with a collection of postmodern picturebooks developed their narrative competence. This article explores how 39 Grades 3 and 4 students' written and visual texts were affected by reading a particular selection of picturebooks. The students wrote…

To help underscore the importance of giving the arts an integral place in the literacy continuum of secondary school language arts, I immersed myself in a careful reading of twenty teacher candidates' transactions in the art of body biography for novel study for intermediate students (grades 7-10). Coming together in groups of five, the teacher…

This paper presents the author's comment on "Evaluation Field Building in South Asia: Reflections, Anecdotes, and Questions" by Katherine Hay. Hay raises a number of extremely relevant issues relating to evaluation field building in South Asia. In this paper, the author aims to underscore the importance of three priorities for initiating…

The author enjoyed reading Katharine Hay's ambitious and humbling visions for evaluation field building in South Asia. She has successfully positioned herself on a high mountain with a wonderful set of binoculars that enable her to see the entire evaluation landscape of South Asia. She magically sees and describes significant historical forces and…

This article discusses revisions to personal narrative writing made by Year 7 students (aged 11-12) in a UK secondary school. The concept of strategic revision was used as a basis for analysing drafts and revised texts in order to investigate strategies and techniques deployed by students in the process of revision and how these related to…

The author analyzes two texts, Gloria Whelan's "Homeless Bird" and Deborah Ellis's "Parvana's Journey", in an attempt to explain some of the problems and difficulties associated with those texts. The author examines Whelan's representations of India and finds troubling binaries associated with that text. In comparison, the…

Our society is increasingly bombarded with visual imagery; therefore, it is important for educators to be knowledgeable about the elements of art and to use our knowledge to help students deepen their reading understanding. Arizpe & Styles (2003) noted that students must be prepared to work with imagery in the future at high levels of…

This paper presents findings from a national project in England, The Power of Reading (Centre for Literacy in Primary Education), which has involved to date 41 projects over 5 years, in 16 Local Authorities nationally, with 900 schools and 1,350 teachers. The paper presents findings for the first 4 years. Our data demonstrate how professional…

In this article, the author makes some further remarks on the legacy of Ninian Smart and related issues in reply to L. Philip Barnes. In his judgement, the exchange between them is worth following up. Substantial issues are raised that are not resolved. In the Editorial of the issue of this journal in which Barnes' response appears, Vivienne…

This article examines the process and results of a two-year cross-cultural blogging project conducted between American fifth-graders (15 students) and Taiwanese tenth-graders (23 students). The two groups of students used a blog to correspond with each other and share their reading responses of culturally relevant picture books. The goal of the…

This article presents a rejoinder to P. Sarangapani and C. Winch who accuse the authors of creating an "ideological fairytale" about the merits of private education for low income families, specifically in poor areas of Hyderabad. The authors present their remarks on Sarangapani and Winch's reply to their article.

This paper is written in response to two BCPSEA (British Columbia Public School Employers' Association) documents: (1) "Teacher professional development: A question of development, growth and currency." From the series of BCPSEA papers "Perspectives in Practice."…

This article explores how Indigenous Canadian children's literature might challenge adult and child readers to consider different meanings and worldviews of the environment as a land-based value system. As three teacher educators from elementary and university classrooms, we use reader-response theory to explore a collection of rich alternative…

This article presents the author's response to Hall and Gunter who accuse the author of trying to mount "a stout defence" of New Labour's reforms of the teaching profession. Hall and Gunter go further and accuse the author of "triumphalism" in his use of the title "Tony Blair's big prize". Their second and more…