Verbal interactions of 46 special education teachers in specific language and learning disability (SLD) classrooms, educable mentally retarded (EMR) classrooms, and trainable mentally retarded (TMR) classrooms were described and compared. The teachers varied, by classroom type, in their use of direct or indirect teaching styles, but the former…

Videotapes of four teachers tutoring first graders in a reading intervention program were analyzed for instances of metacognition and scaffolding (interactional talk structured by teachers to maximize learning). The most frequent category of scaffolding was coaching, which frequently preceded children's self-corrections and served to reinforce…

A La Guardia Community College (New York) course in developmental writing for deaf students features small class size and teachers fluent in American Sign Language. Teaching practices include reading of model essays on topics of interest to deaf students, peer feedback on the first two drafts of writing assignments, and student "reading…

Teacher-librarians can learn more about the effect of media and new technologies, and how to introduce these topics in the classroom. The Media Awareness Network World Wide Web site offers well-organized information and teaching units on privacy and other pertinent topics. Provides excerpts of online materials provided by the Media Awareness…

One teacher's method of obtaining useful feedback from students in large lecture classes involves creation of a small committee of students, mirroring the class' diversity, that receives input from students on all course aspects, meets with the teacher to discuss and make recommendations, provides feedback on progression of the course, and reacts…

Describes an inservice training project designed to raise trainees' awareness, through the analysis of transcriptions of teaching sequences, of the degree of communicativeness in their classroom interactions. Findings indicate an increasing awareness by trainees of their noncommunicative ritualized teaching behaviors, an awareness leading to…

Examines teacher-student exchanges in three content-based language classrooms. Data reveal persistent archetypal patterns of classroom interaction; teachers speak most of the time, and they initiate the majority of the exchanges by asking display questions, whereas student-initiated requests are referential. (30 references) (Author/CK)

Explores the research paradigms found useful by Dr. Poole in her research of classroom discourse as well as her insights into cross-cultural classroom interaction and the differences between first and second language classrooms. She discusses the need for close interactional study of English-as-a-Second- Language classrooms as well as non-English…

Describes several strategies, all based on letters written between teacher and students, that build a sense of community and collaboration in college developmental reading and writing classes, helping students to see themselves as active learners and thinkers. (SR)

Reviews classroom management strategies that are child-centered and consistent with constructivist approaches to education, in which teachers create situations that facilitate learning. Describes strategies including techniques for establishing dialog, cognitive interventions (including self management and conflict resolution), cognitive…

Data are presented from the first-year of a 4-year research project that aims to design a model for describing exemplary communicative practice using signed classroom discourse in the teaching of students who are deaf. Episodes are presented to illustrate how 10 teachers engage in dialogic knowledge building and exemplary communicative practice.…

This article describes ways, based on the curriculum, to measure the progress of students with disabilities and then provides practical information on how to set up and use curriculum-based measurement (CBM) procedures to design meaningful and easy-to-communicate assessments for students. Tips for efficiency with CBM procedures are discussed.…

A survey identified sources of anxiety among 135 beginning college Spanish students and 109 high school students. Results suggest that speaking in the foreign language is not the exclusive source of anxiety. The teacher's relaxed and positive error-correction attitude can reduce anxiety among students greatly. (36 references) (Author/MSE)

Analyzes a collaborative activity, both as a traditional classroom event and as a collaborative event. Finds that, even when the activity is explicitly collaborative and students are experienced collaborators, patterns of traditional classroom discourse dominate their communicative choices. (MG)

Focuses on the oral language that accompanies the writing process of Native American students. Finds that of all the oral language observed during composing, 90 percent of that language was related to the fact that writing was taking place. (MG)