This research focuses on the ways in which preservice teachers evolve in their beliefs and understandings of literature while they are enrolled in a semester-long course, TLS 480, Children's Literature in the Classroom. I was the instructor of the course and served as a teacher researcher using qualitative research and Louise Rosenblatt's…

This article is centrally focused on teaching biography to second grade children in new and intriguing ways. In this article, the authors discuss the use of a multimodal integrated visual art and literacy curriculum in student investigations, interpretations, and writing of biography. Section one describes the wider project of conceptualizing an…

Ten years ago, the authors of Knowing What Students Know proposed that large-scale and classroom assessment should be created from the same underlying model of learning. They suggested that, ideally, a model of learning should provide a developmental perspective, "laying out one or more typical progressions from novice levels toward competence and…

This issue of "School Talk" brings together the ideas of purposefulness and intertextuality together in a teaching practice called intentional intertextual inquiry. "Making Inquiry Intentional and Intertextual" (Karen Smith, Sarah Diaz, and Silvia Edgerton) discusses the framework that combines inquiry-based learning and intertextuality within…

Responds to an article in the previous issue of this journal discussing Howard Gardner's work and its relation to drama education. Suggests that when Gardner's multiple intelligences theory is applied in teaching, differences are valued and communities are strengthened. Concludes that Gardner's theory helps to validate the practice and place of…

Explores the field of adolescent development as a rationale for the use of reader-response pedagogy in the secondary literature classroom. Discusses reader-response theory and pedagogy, adolescent cognitive and affective development in the secondary schools, and the implementation of a reader-response secondary English curriculum. (PRA)

Shares a curriculum framework based on six aspects of literacy: ownership, reading comprehension, writing process, word identification, language and vocabulary knowledge, and voluntary reading. Notes that this framework is consistent with a whole literacy approach, and includes an assessment system and provisions for accountability. (MG)

Intended for teachers, administrators, consultants, parents and students who wish to review and improve elementary and secondary educational programs, this handbook provides essays discussing educational research, teaching philosophies and methods, instructional materials, and curriculum planning strategies in relation to the teaching of…

The language arts component of the California State "Model Curriculum Guides" series, this document sets guidelines for the elementary and middle school English language arts curriculum. The guide suggests a learning sequence--core, integrated, and across the curriculum--and delineates concepts, skills, and activities appropriate for…

Based on the philosophy, goals, and objectives of the Alberta (Canada) Education 1978 curriculum, this revised curriculum guide stresses the importance of students' active involvement in using language. The guide regroups the 1978 skills and concepts for junior high school into the following five language strands: speaking, listening, viewing,…