With the concise and readable "Brain Words," you will learn how children's brains develop as they become readers and discover ways you can take concrete steps to promote this critical developmental passage. Introducing their original, research-based framework of "brain words"--dictionaries in the brain where students store and…

As a teacher of Bowling Green State University's English 3810, Grammar and Writing, the author is charged with teaching future language arts teachers how to teach grammar so that it actually helps their students become better writers and communicators. Because such teaching rejects the ineffective but time-honored drill-it-and-kill-it approach, in…

Whole language learning implies that teachers look at adult learners as whole persons rather than just ESL learners. It asks the teachers to see the learners in their classes as parents, spouses, employees or business owners, neighbors, churchgoers, and members of various communities. In other words, when they approach learners in their classes as…

Describes a year spent teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) in the elementary classroom using a whole-language approach in a nonthreatening environment with lots of writing and student ownership of text. (SR)

Describes how a first-grade bilingual teacher plans a thematic unit using a whole language approach. Discusses how the teacher plans her instruction to cover the maximum number of state-mandated objectives while drawing upon the cultural background, experiences, and interests of her students. (SV)

Maintains that viewing should be incorporated as an integral element in whole language curricula. Suggests a number of activities for the secondary school language arts classroom, pertaining to specific tenets of the whole language approach. (TB)

English Day is celebrated annually at one Israeli school through language- and culture-related activities. One year, the school implemented whole-language learning strategies and involved parents and students in related activities at a series of activity stations featuring movies, books, television, fashion, comics, games, technology, science,…

Describes Readers Theatre, a presentation of prose or poetry that is expressively and emotionally read aloud by several readers. Describes how students work collaboratively to adapt their favorite books, poems, or stories to a Readers Theatre script. (RS)

Describes changes made in the teaching of a college preservice education course in children's literature and reading methods that reflect principles of the whole-language approach. Discusses integration of curriculum, social context, classroom environment, evaluation, writing, purposeful learning, and opportunities to choose. (SR)

Describes the experience of a college teacher teaching, for the first time, an introduction to literature course with a whole-language approach. Describes how she abandoned her position as imparter-of-knowledge and as authority, and joined the students as one of many readers and writers. Discusses how class activities were structured and notes…

This four-part paper presents aspects of a curriculum developed to counter the violent image of heroes in the media by presenting children with role models of men and women who are peacemakers. The paper's first section presents an overview and rationale of the program, stating that: (1) it is an infusion curriculum (not requiring additional…

Discusses Guam's unique multicultural student and teacher population. Describes two classroom language arts activities (the method of taped repeated reading and "write around") that have met with success and continue to gain momentum in Guam's classrooms. (RS)

Illustrates how art provides a medium through which a group of young, pregnant, middle school women connected their reading and writing to their lives. Finds that they were reluctant to engage in the self-revealing writing activities typical of a whole language classroom; however, the opportunity to draw in response to literature enabled students…

Describes teaching method in which a person of the day is featured on a calendar and used as the basis of that day's social studies class. Explains that the strategy introduces authors, artists, inventors, and others and provides matching activities. Suggests the method can incorporate aspects of cultural literacy into social studies, fine arts,…

The whole-language approach is seen to be applicable within communicative language teaching for young Indonesian students. The goal of teaching English in Indonesia is to teach students to read effectively, and whole-language instruction allows them to read immediately. Examples of reading activities are given. (Contains nine references.) (LB)