The real basics are not grammar and the surface features of language, but syntactic fluency, accomodation to a writing situation, and responsibility for what one has written. (DD)

Describes a year-long program to help five- and six-year olds create and appreciate literature. (DD)

In language education, several recent curricular developments from expressive writing to interactional reading share a common core of assumptions rooted in British Romanticism. This article compares central tenets of the New Literacy and Romanticism, focusing on the former's reconceptualization of the teacher, the student, and the language arts…

Class-made scrapbooks with mounted photographs (taken by the teacher) of hearing-impaired preschool students in previous learning activities were used to encourage students' language development and improve their communication skills. Suggestions for teachers regarding supplies and equipment and hints for taking good pictures are offered. (CB)

A review of the Writer Rabbit software program details its multiple classroom uses, focusing on language arts activities such as practicing identification and classification of sentence parts, practicing spelling, and inventing stories. (CB)

Describes how a group of teachers of grades three through eight initiated and carried out a project that reformed their school's writing curriculum. (ARH)

This article presents a five-day science unit focusing on fish to get kindergarten students interested in science and ideas for incorporating science instruction with language arts and art instruction. (CB)

Describes a study showing that primary grade students can benefit from using a word processor in activities that involve the creation of text. Suggests activities that further extend the value of the word processor in language arts instruction. (EL)

Provides suggestions for using children's names in activities associated with language arts, concept formation, self-concept, and understanding other adults and children. (RH)

Explores some of the implications of developing a curriculum that strives for dramatic literacy. (PD)

Spontaneously generated oral stories were analyzed from 93 learning-disabled (LD) and normally achieving (NA) students (8-13 years old). Results showed significant group and age differences. The stories told by the LD Ss contained fewer propositions and complete episodes and contained significantly fewer minor setting statements than those of…

Decries the way in which British education has reduced or eliminated the animation or essence of narrative. Explores the features that give narrative importance broader and deeper than the purely literary values customarily given it, and provides a rationale for keeping storytelling in the curriculum to enhance students' writing. (HTH)

Examines and discusses ways in which the presentation mode can affect children's talk when they are engaging in dramatic dialog. Gives special attention to those differences in language that occur across varying contexts of situation in drama. (HTH)

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)