Suggests that many educators are finding common ground and common sense under the banner of "Balanced Literacy." Discusses the term, the search for balance, and the difficulty in maintaining a balanced literacy program. (RS)

Describes a summer reading enrichment program that used whole language methodology and represented a collaboration between the Learning Institute of the Jewish Community Center on Staten Island, New York, and the Staten Island Children's Museum. Discusses getting started at the exhibit, program format, program evaluation, and recommendations for…

Examines IBM's Writing to Read (WTR) program for kindergartners and first graders from four perspectives: its language learning paradigm, the computer program design, the research conducted on its effectiveness, and implementation considerations. Since costs outweigh learning benefits, educators should reconsider purchasing this program. Includes…

Describes the development and implementation of meaning-based reading instruction for a group of sixth-grade students with special learning needs. Provides details as to program design and describes a sample session. (SR)

Presents alternatives to three misconceptions about bilingual learners to promote the revaluing of these students. Describes traditional views of literacy instruction for second-language learners and suggests a whole-language literature program as an alternative. Lays out differences between inauthentic, controlled literature-based reading…

Since 1987, the school district of West Allis-West Milwaukee (Wisconsin) has reviewed and revised its elementary reading program based on the philosophy that spoken, read, and written language must flow naturally from the child, be used in meaningful ways to communicate real needs, and involve tradebooks. Numerous inservice presentations and…

Discusses collaboration between a teacher and an education professor in developing and implementing a new reading/language-arts program in a fifth-grade classroom. The move from a traditional basal reading and language-arts textbook approach to one using novels and process writing meant many changes for both teacher and students. An Author's…

Discusses a reading intervention program called Project Prevent that is based upon the principles of Reading Recovery. Describes the major elements of the program: screening and selection procedures, lesson components, transition, and posttesting. (MG)

Explains how an experienced teacher is trying to incorporate Houghton Mifflin's new reading series, "Invitations to Literacy", into her elementary school classes. Discusses reasons for a standardized reading program, including high student mobility, younger less-experienced teachers, and a lack of accountability; and considers whole…

Describes a cross-age reading program used to refine and extend the whole language and process writing goals that are part of the school curriculum plan. Discusses the observation of students and evaluation strategies. (MG)

"Education Matters" is the monthly newsletter of the Association of American Educators (AAE), an organization dedicated to advancing the American teaching profession through personal growth, professional development, teacher advocacy and protection. This issue of the newsletter includes: (1) Supreme Court Hears Union Coercion Case; What…

A small-scale collaboration between members of a school of education and a public school district (involving some reading/language arts faculty and students from the University of Texas on the one hand and the curriculum director, volunteer reading teachers, media specialists, and elementary teachers in a school district in San Antonio, Texas on…

Contends that becoming literate involves the socialization of attention. Discusses two modes of socialization, revealing and telling. Concludes that the final evaluation of any language theory is relevance to classroom practice. (CFR)

Outlines a descriptive (not prescriptive) approach for the creation of a literature-based reading curriculum. Describes the 4 steps (behaving with basals, redefining reading, revving up for reading, and letting literature loose) that took the author 14 years of teaching to complete. Argues that literature-based reading programs are fun, enjoyable,…

The Easy Steps to Reading Independence (ESTRI) Program is a reading program to be used to support whole language or basal reader programs by enabling limited ability or non-readers to begin reading, or to remediate reading disabilities, at age and grade appropriate levels immediately, without requiring the students to know sight words before…