As a teacher of Bowling Green State University's English 3810, Grammar and Writing, the author is charged with teaching future language arts teachers how to teach grammar so that it actually helps their students become better writers and communicators. Because such teaching rejects the ineffective but time-honored drill-it-and-kill-it approach, in…

Unless educators can learn from past extremes, the current emphasis on literature and whole language instruction may undermine phonics and other necessary principles. Fortunately, a reborn emphasis on writing will assist the development of accurate decoding and stress the phonemic structure of language. Educators must embrace "best" trends and…

Discusses whole-language learning in Indiana classrooms, its philosophical origin and appropriate educational environment. The article offers a set of beliefs about whole-language teaching and presents guidelines to help schools restructure their thinking about the curriculum and learning climate. (SM)

Discusses the "Biographic Literacy Profiles Project," a seminar for teachers and administrators which focused on developing an alternative to current assessment methods in elementary language arts. Shows how the process of changing assessment patterns can reflect the same integrative, holistic goals that teachers have for working with…

The article explores the creation of whole-language learning, examining educational reform since the 1950s. It presents descriptions of whole-language learning, noting confusion about its definition and debating whether it is a reaction to poor reading and language arts teaching or response to criticisms of teaching since the 1950s. (SM)

An integrated language perspective on teaching in the elementary school is outlined in this book. The text provides the theory on which the perspective is based and provides many examples of how it may be translated into practice. Chapter one provides the general principles of the integrated language perspective. Chapter two describes the…

In the area of language instruction, a network of ecological relationships exists among the teacher, the child, and the text--the sustaining and nurturing of these relationships is at the heart of whole language instruction. Moreover, this network of relationships falls prey to neither of the unsustainable extremities of "gericentrism"…

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…

A study examined whether Kentucky primary teachers were adopting the changes in literacy instruction recommended in the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA/1990) which, in part, encouraged the use of whole language and integrated reading/language arts approaches and the teaching of writing as a process. The study employed direct classroom…

Examines how changes in the view of the universe led to whole-language learning, a collaborative process which considers the social contexts of language. Suggests that whole language is not a teaching method but a belief and discusses how to transform teaching into a learning experience. (SM)

This book aims to help teachers who are committed to whole language principles explain the philosophy to their students' parents. It addresses the concerns of parents who most likely grew up in a traditional, teacher-centered educational system, and who therefore might be unfamiliar with a whole language approach to language arts. Drawing on work…

Describes the development and implementation of a whole language program in Quebec (Canada), a unilingual French province. Focuses on the meaning of educational change at various levels of Quebec's educational system. Presents perspectives and competing ideologies on whole language. (Author/BB)

Providing introduction to the whole language philosophy, this book aims to demonstrate that whole language is indeed good education. It outlines what kinds of research support whole language education, how a whole language philosophy may be carried out in practice, and how to go about implementing a whole language philosophy in a school or a…

This sourcebook contains articles, resources, and sample teaching materials to assist practitioners implementing developmentally appropriate practices in the classroom. The first six parts of the sourcebook contain reprints of more than 40 journal articles, topical bibliographies and resource lists, and sample teaching materials. The topics of…

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…