Assesses the evolution of use of nonprint media in the classroom from the late 1960s to the present, with particular attention to six types of media-related articles produced during this period, rationales for media in English and an update concluding that an evolutionary rather than revolutionary change is taking place. (JK)

Stresses the importance of the English teacher's role in preparing students for a career. (RB)

Describes a series of censorship-related incidents in Louisiana and outlines the actions taken by English educators to assure freedom in textbook selection; suggests several courses of action that educators facing censorship of school-related materials might take. (MAI)

The treatment of educational trends is seldom fine-grained enough to communicate the complexity of the issues involved. A "beyond-the-trend" analysis of movements and countermovements in composition, reading, literature, and oral language reveals some new wrinkles in trends that are now well established in the professional literature of English…

Lists journal articles and other materials that present "cautionary" viewpoints related to the role of computers in education. (HOD)

Research based text materials will probably never dominate the textbook market. To begin with, translating theory and research into practice is a chancy business. There are also creative problems such as the inherent oversimplification involved in textbook writing. Every textbook writer who has been a classroom teacher will acknowledge that such…

Skilled writers, contrary to what we tell students, do make frequent use of cliches.

Discusses the problems encountered in getting pattern practices into the English program at the secondary level in New Orleans Public Schools. (RB)

Details the history and politics of educational standards in American educational institutions. Outlines key features of various standards projects. (HB)

A teacher's manual for a program in American Indian culture is condemned as inaccurate and misleading.

Examines "trends" in English teaching in four categories: interests, trends, movements, and repertoire. (HOD)

Defines free writing, reviews the philosophy and history of free writing, and discusses some problems that it entails. (NKA)

In attempting to meet school-board mandates for competency-based testing in composition, educators must devise the most acceptable testing programs they can. This paper describes a design (the Paul Diederich system) for testing students' writing skills, which yields statistically reliable data on individual students, and reports on a New Orleans…

Intended for administrators and policy makers as well as teachers, this digest explores issues surrounding methods of teaching thinking skills and who should teach them. Following an introduction that acknowledges the need for teaching such skills but a lack of consensus on how to meet this need, the digest discusses theories of isolating specific…