Ranging across the language arts spectrum in the elementary school curriculum, this compilation of 36 essays is divided into eight main sections: (1) issues, theory, and philosophy of a language arts curriculum; (2) reading (includes "Developing the Reading Curriculum,""Determining Reading Levels," and "Reading: Basics versus Problem Solving)"; (3) handwriting; (4) spelling (offers strategies and activities for improving spelling, and the suggestion that spelling can be correlated with other curriculum areas in the school/class setting); (5) linguistics (deals with patterns of sequences, expanding sentences, stress, pitch and juncture, and generating new sentences) and grammar (especially structural grammar); (6) oral communication (subdivided as creative expression in oral communication, and oral communication and the psychology of learning); (7) listening (focuses on diagnosis, the pupil and listening); and (8) writing and composition--the most extensive section (offers, among others, material entitled "Writing Achievement and the Basics,"" The Child and Writing,""Creative Writing," and "Poetry in the Elementary School"). (NKA)