Considerable research indicates that high-stakes accountability policies have the capacity to influence language arts instruction, particularly in urban, high-needs schools where pressure to increase test scores tends to be most acute. This article utilizes Cultural Historical Activity Theory to critically examine the constraints and affordances…

This article describes a project that studied 15 preservice teachers' perceptions of and reactions to responding to children's and young adult literature using a Ning blog. These perceptions and reactions provided insight into various practical aspects of using a social networking blog to facilitate literature response in a teacher education…

Seidl and Conley elaborate a set of beliefs regarding transformative spaces, identity-making, and the development of a critical, multicultural identity that inform their approach to multicultural teacher education. They believe that if we expect new teachers to co-construct with their students classroom spaces that allow multiple voices and…

Suggests ways in which a teacher-student dialogue can help students learn to rewrite their compositions. (DD)

Students should have a primary role in teachers' lives, and teachers must not be overcome by administrative chores. (DD)

In order for culturally disadvantaged children to expand their language skills, the classroom teacher must show a positive attitude toward the students and their language.

Explores materials in the ERIC system dealing with the turn-taking model of classroom interaction between teacher and students. (HTH)

Reviews ERIC materials dealing with the factors that influence interaction between teachers and students in the classroom. (HTH)

Discusses materials in the ERIC system exploring the effect of teacher attitudes toward student dialects on student language performance. Suggests that teachers recognize the relationship between cultural identity and language use to clear away obstacles to student success. (HTH)

Interviews Therese Craig, a drama educator at the University of Alberta, Canada, who discusses the nature and rationale of journal writing, as well as applications for its use in the classroom. (HTH)

Summarizes historical developments in the sociology of language and education. Urges teachers to create alternative patterns of interaction in their classrooms so that they might better promote learning, language development, and social relations among teachers and students. (RL)

Reprint of an article published in October 1947 which describes the traits 47,000 students attributed to "helpful" teachers. (DD)

L. S. Vygotsky, the psychologist and teacher from Byelorussia who became a central figure in Soviet psychological and educational circles in the 1920s and 1930s, has become a frequent citation in 21st-century scholarship. He is most-often invoked to support some form of instructional scaffolding, based on his idea of the zone of proximal…

Describes how one sixth-grade writing instructor successfully introduced writing conferences into the classroom. Discusses some of the problems encountered, how they were resolved, and the final procedures used for peer and teacher conferences. (HTH)

Provides a historical view of child language research, showing that investigations of child language have come full circle in their approach to gathering data. Discusses implications for teachers in encouraging children's progression to adult-like conversation. (HTH)