Describes how the whole-language philosophy undergirds the teaching approaches used in a nontraditional special education program designed for students with language and learning disabilities. (SR)

Presents reflections of six primary school teachers and their principal on the growth of their literacy program based on whole language principles; and their professional development as teachers of young children. Discusses a nurturing environment, changes in their literacy program, strategies for success, and future goals. (SR)

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)

Offers responses from four readers of this journal, all reading and/or classroom teachers, to a question posed by another teacher: whether children who have had limited literacy experiences should start reading in whole-language readers and/or trade books or whether they should start in controlled-vocabulary preprimers. (SR)

Explores the essence of whole language and the change process in moving toward a whole-language orientation. Discusses oversimplifying complexities, moving beyond a focus on practice, whole-language staff development, and concerns for the future in the context of a school district's move toward whole language. (SR)

Describes how a teacher of children with learning disabilities worked with three regular classroom teachers to teach mainstreamed children in whole-language classrooms. Shows how students' reading abilities, self-esteem, and motivation improved as the lines were blurred between abled and disabled, teacher and specialist, and right and wrong. (SR)

Describes current literacy practices in Australia and the history of influential approaches to literacy instruction. Discusses the unique contexts of professional development and practice that may make Australian approaches to literacy different from whole-language movements in American schools. (SR)

Discusses the goals of Project Family Initiative for English Literacy (FIEL) and the rationale for the model on which it is based. Describes the curriculum and the content of the five-step lessons. Provides an example of one family's literacy growth within the project. (MG)

Explores one kindergarten teacher's insights gained through the writing of her students. Shows that students were gaining a wealth of knowledge through meaningful engagement in literacy processes. Shows how, by recognizing the power of learning from young children, she gained greater insight into emergent literacy development and informed her…

Describes a summer school English-as-a-Second-Language classroom that uses a content-rich whole language curriculum. Highlights experiences that were successful in facilitating literacy development, including reading experiences, writing experiences, talking and reading, and talking and writing. Discusses the effectiveness of the instructional…

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)

Describes how one resource person demonstrated and discussed whole language teaching methods in five elementary and middle schools to start the process of educational change. (MG)

Describes the "Global Method" of Celestin Freinet, a French educator whose teaching methods (similar to language experience, writing process approach, and whole language) are used by teachers in Europe. Offers excerpts of Freinet's ideas on democratic pedagogy, having children write their own books, teaching writing, moral civic…

Describes the author's year as a volunteer in the writing workshop in her son's first-grade classroom. Discusses her experiences and reflects on the growth she saw in children as readers and writers. (SR)