Discusses what happens when students and teachers are encouraged to use multiple ways of knowing in mediating their experiences with the world. Suggests that a good language arts program expands the communication potential of all learners through the orchestration and use of multiple ways of knowing for purposes of ongoing interpretation and…

This document contains a statement of the Moline School District's language learning philosophy and goals, and articulates the district's philosophy of providing students with language learning skills necessary to become life-long learners. The document includes specific objectives and anticipated student outcomes for the following: life-long…

Discusses the need for fundamental restructuring of language arts instruction. Discusses the benefits of the whole-language approach and the current problems with testing, use of instructional time, and the lack of teacher support. (PRA)

It is upon a positive literature-based foundation that educators must build excellent curriculum and teaching strategies. It is the job of educators to be trained to integrate the concepts of whole language and direct phonetic instruction so children have the advantage of both schools of thought, to be aware of how children learn most efficiently,…

This article presents the whole-language approach as an environment that is particularly suitable for students with learning disabilities. This approach can allow students control over their learning, encourages them to experiment and take risks in their learning, promotes self-monitoring strategies, and enhances memory. (SW)

The education profession as well as the public do not need exposure to more one-sided opinions about the need for academic preschools, about how to generate higher standards, about how poorly United States schools perform as compared to schools in other industrialized nations, and about other potentially volatile issues. In responding to the…

Professors in a Communication Arts methods course for preservice and inservice elementary school teachers sought to move the content of the language arts curriculum from a direct instruction to a whole language model. A transformation came about as one professor realized that her efforts to enthusiastically convey the importance of authentic…

This paper describes the experiences of a teacher and a curriculum helper in designing and implementing a fifth grade language arts curriculum at an inner city, magnet school in Indianapolis (Indiana). The report describes the work in three phases: (1) making explicit the problems with the previous language arts curriculum; (2) formulating a plan…

Information on current trends and issues in English instruction, compiled by the directors of six National Council of Teachers of English commissions, is presented in this report, the seventh annual report by the commissions. The commissions and their directors are as follows: (1) Reading Commission (Constance Weaver); (2) Commission on Literature…

This paper describes Project MILE (Moline Improvement in Literacy Education), a school/university partnership program between the University of Northern Iowa and Moline (Iowa) Public School District #40. The project called for a long-term collaborative effort in order to develop a complex and sophisticated level of university involvement with a…

Information on current trends and issues in English instruction, compiled by the directors of six National Council of Teachers of English commissions, is presented in this report, the eighth annual report by the commissions. The commissions and their directors represented in the report are: (1) Commission on Reading (Patrick Shannon); (2)…

This book brings together, under the term "whole learning," ideas from the language-arts-based whole language movement and work in middle schools with multidisciplinary, problem-centered, integrative approaches. The book contains 15 chapters, most written by teachers about their experiences with implementing whole learning curricula. The…