Ideological assumptions about childhood play into the production and selection of children's literature. Various ideologies proclaim that children should be happy and free from stories of evil, children's literature should help children encounter the joys in life, it should be filled with bright colors to keep children's attention, and it should…

The ability to question lies at the heart of human curiosity and is a necessary component of cognition. The author stresses that forming questions is essential to human thought and communication. As such, forming questions is a foundational process that cuts across curricular areas and is embedded in content standards across the nation, including…

This article examines how Grade 5 students read and responded to two wordless picturebooks by Istvan Banyai, "Re-Zoom" (1995) and "Zoom" (1995). Analysis of the students' written responses revealed that they wrote about the books' structure and format, as well as their sense/meaning making processes. (Contains 1 figure, 1 footnote, and a list of…

The inaugural column in the "Content Literacy" department discusses the importance of teachers' assisting students in grades 4-6 to develop content literacy skills. The discussion centers on levels of literacy and diversity issues facing teachers and then identifies three fundamental elements that should be a part of every teacher's content…

We need a model that can guide middle school educators to implement multiple literacies (multiliteracies) so prevalent in today's global economy, but how can this be successfully accomplished in today's schools? As a result of content analyses, regular classroom observations, and interviews, the researchers document a framework for…