Describes a series of instructional episodes in an 11th-grade classroom discussing J.D. Salinger's short story "The Laughing Man." Presents and discusses the "Text and Context" model for the negotiation of interpretations in classroom contexts. Offers suggestions for developing interpretive classroom communities. (SR)

Optometry educators can be assisted in making complex concepts understandable to students by using rhetorical devices such as metaphors, similes, analogies, parables, and allegories. As an example, the difficulties in communicating everyday but complex clinical concepts regarding inflammatory disorders are discussed and use of rhetorical devices…

Reexamines the notion of "teaching." Drawing on data from a range of classrooms, as well as from recently published teaching texts, particular attention is focused on the question: "What do we mean by teaching/instruction?" (eight references) (Author/JL)

Discusses the dynamics of the language lesson. It is argued that the lesson represents at least four types of events: a curricular event, an implementation of a method, a social event, and an arena of human interaction. (3 references) (GLR)

Provides a synthesis and extension of research on teacher clarity conducted since 1971. Examines the conceptualization of teacher clarity and research approaches to it. Supports the thesis that clarity is a relational variable. (SR)

Explores the coordination, evolution, and expansion of the Communication in Instruction Master of Arts program taught throughout West Virginia. Describes the program--its development goals, course offerings and structure, and evaluation techniques used to assess its effectiveness. (SR)

Offers a narrative based on a real event, in the form of a "docustory," describing that moment when teaching worked--when, in an instructional setting, communication was "perfect,""best," or "excellent." Describes how a high school student's performance of a scene from Shakespeare's "Othello"…

Discusses 13 teaching narratives (in the same issue of the journal) exploring the variable ways that authorial status, author-reader contact, and authorial stance function in their construction. Clusters them into themes of teaching as marking/extending boundaries, teaching as crossing/dissolving borders, and teaching as encountering/negotiating…

A Russian scholar anticipating language difficulties in teaching a seminar on the former Soviet Union in the United States used journal writing to improve communication. It was found that the journals helped monitor student attention and comprehension and was useful in adjusting teaching strategies to student styles and abilities. (MSE)

Discusses what the author learned about teaching the questioning process from a class of second graders when they elected to discuss a student-posed question that seemed nonsensical to the author. Shows that what adults think are good questions for discussion are not necessarily what children think will generate interesting and deep talk. (SR)

An experiment using electronic mail discussions to improve communication in a college class of 200 students yielded over 1,780 messages, with two-thirds sent by about one-fourth of the students. Two problems emerged: students responding to old messages after discussion had enlarged, and infrequent mail reading. (MSE)

Analyzes a sequence of grammar instruction in a fifth-grade classroom to investigate how familiar instructional objects called problems, answers, errors, and solutions are made visible to the cohort. Discusses an "essential instructional fiction" which is essential to the coherence of the lesson in hand and which may hold relevance for…

Notes that two texts were being read simultaneously as a teacher educator read aloud to other teachers in a summer seminar--Cynthia Rylant's "Missing May" and the experience of reading "Missing May." Notes that the teachers made meaning from both texts, working together to shape the teachers into a community because they had…

A study explored the ability of children to comprehend expressions of uncertainty in varying degrees (e.g., "not likely, possible, probable"). Subjects were 42 French students aged approximately 9, 12, and 15. Results, including age and gender differences, and implications for classroom communication are discussed. (MSE)

Examines the use and influence of compliance-gaining strategies by graduate teaching assistants in the college classroom. Compares these power patterns to those of university professors. Indicates that use of behavior alteration techniques is significantly related to student affective learning. (SR)