(Purpose) The purpose of this paper is to describe visual literacy and an adapted version of Visual Thinking Strategy (VTS) and its value to enhance students' inferential thinking. (Methodology) An example of a middle school VTS, art-integrated lesson is described as well as reflections of a middle school language arts teacher about what she…

This report is a descriptive analysis of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), intended to determine which content is eligible for the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium's end-of-year summative assessment for English language arts (ELA) and mathematics in grades 3-8 and high school. The high school standards analyzed were those in grades…

The way that the teacher responds to students' writing and talking is most important when developing poetry skills. This article suggests that poetry can not be taught through well-planned lessons but must come from communication and feeling. (DF)

Describes methods developed for a fourth- through sixth- grade writers' workshop designed to teach children to write within certain common structures. Separate workshop sessions dealt with descriptive writing, mood, characterization, adventure stories, tall tales, plays, autobiography, and reporting. (AEA)

Simplification of Haiku to enable fifth graders to write their own verse. (AF)

Some 60 activities in language arts for use in the out-of-doors are described. Categories for these middle school activities include oral activities, factual writing, fictional writing, and poetry. (JC)

Mind and mood pictures help students "see" reason in their writing. (Editor)

A description of teaching composition in one of the most difficult of situations -- an urban commuter college -- and attempts to turn the course into a vital presence in the intellectual lives of the students. (Authors/RY)

How to help students progress from descriptive to affective to creative responses through the use of films in a language arts class. (RB)

Recommends that teachers look for and value the freshness, naivete, humor, and wisdom in children's writing. Samples of children's writing are provided to illustrate these traits. (AEA)

Describes a class writing exercise for high school and college English classes (which functions well early in the first semester), which emphasizes a basic idea (that close inspection of a subject will reveal that there is a lot to say about it) by having students describe in detail a person's face, first as a class and then individually. (SR)

Designed for kindergarten through grade three, the material in this volume of the "Curriculum Guide for the Language Arts" is organized by grades with provision for use in a continuous or nongraded organization. An introductory section outlines the general language arts program, noting specifically the characteristics of the primary child, the…

In a series of articles based upon doctoral studies, this issue examines composition instruction in the elementary schools. The first article provides a historical background for examining current practices in elementary composition programs, the second article discusses the relationship between form and content, and the last three articles look…

Methods for blending the language of the street with the language of the library, the integration of the language of film, a visual and oral languae, with the written language of great literature and good composition. (Author)

This paper describes an experimental exploration of special procedures used in a game-like online expository writing experience that was designed to help preservice language arts teachers develop descriptive writing skills. Participants were asked to describe a target picture within a picture set to their cohorts in an online discussion in order…