Students and teachers employ think-aloud strategies as they read literature, compose poems, and create artwork related to the theme of peace. This unit is designed for collaborative teaching among classroom, art, and technology teachers, and school librarians. A single educator can also teach this unit. During nine and a half hours, plus…

This book, a comprehensive guide to the range of genres and characteristic features of English-language fiction written for children, is based on the belief that deep subject knowledge of language and literature provides a foundation for effective teaching and learning. The book helps readers to develop their understanding of literature within…

This document represents one section of the Delaware Teachers' Desk Reference to Standards and Performance Indicators for Curriculum Planning and Unit Development produced by the Delaware Department of Education. The Desk Reference is part of the Delaware Department of Education's ongoing efforts to provide assistance and support to local school…

This paper introduces the concept of critical viewing and illustrates what it means to take a critical stance in classroom teaching practice. The paper's purposes are: first, to discuss the possibilities of criticism in classroom practice as defined by progressive educators; second, to explain the interrelationship between critical literacy and…

This unit intends for students to explore various literary devices such as theme, characterization, and vocabulary while they read Jack London's "The Call of the Wild." While reading this text, students will explore the relationship of these devices in connection to the unit's overall theme: survival. Students will be exposed to history,…

This thematic curriculum unit on the adolescent novel, "The Outsiders" (S.E. Hinton) discusses issues that are relevant to students' lives and important to their future decisions. In the unit, students will discuss issues relevant to the novel and will use the novel as a bridge to analyze their own lives. The unit, with an overall theme…

Offers basic guidelines for college teachers in responding to students' writing in the disciplines, with the central principle that teachers' comments should reflect their instructional goals for individual students. Suggests that fewer, more carefully designed comments are likely to be more effective than many unfocused responses. Examples of…

Describes New York City Technical College's "Law through Literature" course, an English elective especially for Legal Assistant Studies students. Quotes from students' essays about personal experiences related to characters/events from Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird." Recounts class discussions about influences on…

This article presents the author's response to Edmund Gordon and Beatrice Bridglall's paper titled "The Affirmative Development of Academic Ability: In Pursuit of Social Justice." Placing her comments in a historical context, the author states that Gordon and Bridglall point out that the "Brown v. Board of Education" case was the result of decades…

Responding to Brighouse's comments, we discuss ways that institutions of higher education themselves can increase access for low-income students. We argue for the important role of community colleges and for bridge programs that colleges can establish with middle and high schools to ensure that students take the subjects necessary to prepare them…

I take up Silliman's challenge to explore the "moral logic" of "structural racism" largely absent in my book, "I'm Not a Racist, But..." I criticize and build on Glenn Loury's account of the normative assessment of racial inequality by examining three factors generating such disparities in educational achievement--stereotyping, performance-based…

This paper describes a study designed to find out whether children's reading would be affected by line spacing that is wider or narrower than the commonly used default values. The realistic, high quality test material was set using a range of four different line spacing values, and twenty-four children in Years 1 and 2 (between five and seven…

This article presents a case study of a fourth grade boy's experiences in writing, preceding and following a story he wrote about a boy whose struggles in writing led directly to his death. We explore how Max's writing experiences related to his identity, specifically his sense of himself as a writer, his struggle to communicate his ideas, and his…

This paper focuses on how social studies content and concepts can be explored through literature in which grandparents and grandchildren interact. The paper emphasizes that, through the intergenerational relationship, children can encounter and explore life in general, increasing their understanding of their own portion of the world and of…

Intended to help teachers explore the instructional use of computers meant for books and literature, this book describes how to organize classrooms for an online project, how to create a community of readers in the classroom, and how to teach children to talk about books. It also discusses such practical needs as computer equipment, staff…