This lesson plan for teachers to use with students in junior English (American Literature and pre-college writing) seeks to span the gap between American Revolution-era literature and today's teenagers. The lesson plan advocates using music to span the gap. It presents a rationale, educational objectives, materials needed, and background…

Senior Project is a culminating assessment for high school seniors, involving planning, research, writing, and presentations. Characteristics and outcomes of the program were studied via surveys of 436 teachers, 422 students, and 163 graduates at 4 Senior Project schools and 4 control schools in rural and small-town North Carolina. Findings…

This 17th annual report presents information on current trends and issues informally discussed by the directors of six National Council of Teachers of English commissions. Commission on Composition (Richard Gebhardt, director) discussed the role of writing in literacy; interactions of race, class, language, and learning; teaching grammar;…

A Microelectronics Education Programme-funded project is developing computer assisted learning modules in the languages, science, and craft/design technology, as well as fostering computer awareness. The project's goal is to produce materials which will pave the way for the rapidly changing curriculum in addition to producing materials for…

Provides annotations of research studies in the areas of language, literature and media study, writing, and English teacher education. (HOD)

Field notes and interview data were triangulated with secondary data in this ethnographic study to generate a description of social organization. A partial theory of the teacher's actions in working with a predominantly Black group of 17 low-income rural high school students was devised. Teacher effectiveness in this situation is described. (SLD)

Describes a social studies assignment developed for Arizona eighth graders that focuses on Arizona history but also incorporates English, math, and computer programming skills to create a computer program about traveling through the state. Topics discussed include classroom management, computer requirements, community involvement, and interaction…

Subtle forms of resistance found during ethnographic observation of 2 suburban high school English classes with 65 students are not found in a third class of 31 suburban high school students. The dialectical attitude of resistance and compliance is influenced by teaching approach and style of classroom interaction. (SLD)

Explores the complexity of developing and identifying national curriculum content standards. This article introduces other articles on developing standards for studies in mathematics, social studies, English, the sciences, and advanced placement studies. The challenges for national standards are examined with awareness of the importance of these…

Three college instructors, teaching very different content (management, political science, and literature) and using classroom assessment techniques (CATs), compared the results. All found that CATs contributed to self-reflection, that designing CATs helps faculty focus on course and class goals, and that responding to CATs requires students to…

Presents the experience of an English instructor who worked with members of the Physics Department to revise a technical physics class. Discusses the impact of learning communities at Henry Ford Community College (Michigan) on faculty development, student performance, and institutional culture. (VWC)

Recounts the activist history of the Conference on College Composition and Communication in working toward a more democratic valuing of language diversity by both teachers and the public. Focuses on two organizational policies of CCCC, the "Students' Right" resolution of 1974 and the "National Language Policy" of 1988,…

This paper contributes to the literature on the effectiveness of schools. The analysis is unique in using data on the minutes of instruction per day in each of four subjects taught in the public elementary schools in Illinois. Few education production function papers have information on the amount of instruction students receive in a given…

Developed and field-tested by an English teacher using a group of at-risk, urban high-school students, this book shows how to create a constructivist, or student-centered, approach to teaching English--one that encourages critical thinking. The book shows educators how to develop new and effective teaching units and includes reproducible…

This Learning Resources Evaluation Manual (LREM) contains evaluations of 140 instructional products listed in the 1994 supplement to Virginia's Adult Education Curricula Resource Catalog. A table of contents lists topics/subjects and page numbers. Some titles that are useful under more than one category are cross-listed for easy reference. These…