Reports on observations of classrooms serving Native American students and offers conclusions concerning the type of classroom setting and language arts program most likely to optimize the linguistic development of the students. (DD)

An interview with Michael Stubbs, lecturer in linguistics at the University of Nottingham, regarding the sociolinguistics of the classroom. (DD)

Describes how teachers can demonstrate love for their students. Relates anecdotes showing loving interactions between students and teachers. (MM)

Outlines the Conversational Discussion Group framework, an approach to help teachers shift from traditional, teacher-led discussions to peer discussions about literature. Discusses several questions that teachers ask as they make this shift from centralized discussion structures. (SR)

Describes a discussion format called Collaborative Reasoning, part of a literature-based reading program in which students discuss a central question about a story they have read. Discusses the background of Collaborative Reasoning, its discussion framework, and instructional moves that support the development of reasoning. Notes the high rate of…

Reviews research on the importance of oral language for the child and provides a framework for curriculum design based on talk purposes, talk contexts, and talk planning. (DD)

Focuses on reading instruction to assess the role of language arts instruction in homogeneous societies of recent decades. Uses this assessment to explore the changes that future pluralistic societies will require. Asserts that to accommodate a pluralistic society, classroom structure, communication, and organization must use language for…

Reviews the literature indicating that most classroom communication is of the "teacher question-student response-teacher reaction" cycle, either oral or written. Argues that this dominant pattern of classroom dialogue is ill-adapted to real learning and presents an alternative model that values exploratory talk and writing. (HTH)

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)

Reflects on the role of tradition in defining the nature of classrooms, schools, schooling, learning, and teaching. Argues that if schools really are for children, they should be organized in such a way that they facilitate learning rather than perpetuate tradition or make things easier for adults. (HTH)

Classifies the different language interactions that occur in the school and home, ranging from those that give the child or learner the power to make language choices to those that control the child's use of language. (HTH)

Presents the "Englishes" of children from different social backgrounds that are reflected in the forms and functions of their individual ways of communicating. Discusses implications of these language varieties for the classroom. (HTH)

Examines notions and examples of instruction that can inhibit language growth, arguing that reading and writing curricula can be designed so that children are provided the freedom to explore language and grow as language learners in much the same way they learned oral language. (HTH)

Presents examples of discourse in classroom interaction that show how social relations in the classroom mirror larger societal relationships in ways that exclude students' cultural and linguistic practices as resources for meaningful literacy learning. Shows how this discourse process (called reciprocal distancing) is used by teachers and students…

Discusses how primary school students use language as a tool for learning mathematics and develop their language abilities at the same time. Shares how students use a research approach as they investigate mathematics and use language in their speaking, listening, reading, and writing. (MG)