Describes one teacher's systematic inquiry into the effectiveness of strategies to increase students' vocabularies. A research-type approach indicated that use of clarity statements and interchanges that encouraged connections to the students' own lives seemed more effective in helping students incorporate their understanding of concepts with…

Describes one multi-age classroom that includes children from 6-11 years of age (traditionally grades 1-5). Explains how this unique learning community began; how student groupings were established to promote social interaction and peer collaboration among a wide age span of children; what the class looked like in actual practice; and what the…

Describes how nine teachers inquired about their students as spellers, how what they learned about students (by analyzing spelling errors) affected their instruction, and how their inquiry led to instructional changes in their classrooms. (SR)

Describes how a group of language arts teachers established a year-long research project in collaboration with a university, and how, through participation in the project, they transformed their teaching, became more active professionally, and became critical, responsive users of current research. (ARH)

Notes that a premium has been placed on written composition in American schools. Discusses classroom research that demonstrates the power of oral composition. Suggests that to help all children become better composers, educators must involve them in authentic oral, as well as written, composition. (SR)

Discusses how teachers in six primary classrooms taught children to synthesize information (regarding reading, social studies, math, science, and social skills). Notes the central role that talk played in both the childrens' learning to synthesize and in the teachers' clarifying what they were researching and how they could best help the children.…

Describes how a teacher explores the bullying behavior of a girl in her class to understand how kids negotiate for power within a learning community. Discusses activities she used to explore and examine the behaviors in her class. Focuses on understanding processes and practices, not on fixing or "normalizing" individuals. (SG)

Describes an informal classroom study in which students tape recorded their thoughts as they read, wrote, and "conferenced" with classmates, and how they discovered the organizational benefits of using the recorder. Also describes the writing conferences and workshops that took place in the classroom. (HTH)

Examines the observations of one participant in an inservice teacher education course on classroom research in the writing process. Discusses what happened to the teacher/researchers as they engaged in the research process, what happened in their teaching, and implications for research and teacher education. (HTH)

Illustrates the benefits and challenges of team-teaching in a multi-age classroom by describing one school's efforts at implementing language arts instruction within an interdisciplinary approach. Discusses initiating multi-age grouping and the advantages and challenges of multi-age classrooms. Offers recommendations. (SR)

Examines the roles and relationships involved as a first-grade teacher and her students built a classroom community that supported the children's acquisition of literacy. Shows how the teacher helped the children and how she got out of their way to allow them to take control of their own learning and curriculum. (SR)

Reports on a teacher/researcher collaboration in a multicultural grade 1/2 classroom that instituted a community-oriented language arts program based on parental participation in the instruction. (RS)

Discusses the interrelationship of the language arts, and how both oral and written language help the learning process. Describes a classroom in which students' activities center around talking, and how the teacher participated as a researcher in ethnographic studies out of which came the motivation for this instructional approach. (HTH)

Describes a collaborative effort between an elementary school teacher and a university researcher to conduct joint research in content area reading. Discusses the advantages of such a collaborative project, as well as what the teacher and the researcher both learned. (HTH)

Suggests that the essence of whole language is students developing literate voices. Discusses a seven-month partnership in which the authors participated in and reflected on literature discussions with small groups of fourth graders. Explores how literate voices are developed in real classrooms. (RS)