A high school teacher tells how student talk became an integral part of her teaching program. She devised oral language activities, including reading aloud, debate, and small group discussions. She also rearranged the classroom to encourage discussion. Encouraging classroom talk led to improved writing skills. (SKC)

Focusing on process description, provides a step-by-step class presentation of an assignment given to a technical writing class that uses a computer program to teach instructions. Discusses the assignment's benefits to class discussion, the editing session, and the writing produced. (JD)

Sixty-eight elementary-level teachers were surveyed concerning their involvement in enrichment inservice courses and university courses on gifted education, and class climate established by the teachers. Results indicated that the more inservice courses undertaken, the more teachers reported directing their instruction toward higher levels of…

Describes three literacy organization and public library programs: Project LEARN (Cleveland, Ohio), which encourages higher-level beginning adult readers to want to read on their own; Greenville County (South Carolina) Library's Latchkey Kids Program; and policies on unattended and disruptive children developed by Iowa City and Cedar Rapids (Iowa)…

Sixth- and seventh-grade teachers were trained to maintain an average teacher wait time of three to five seconds during mathematics and language arts lessons. Longer waits were associated with higher achievement, improved teacher and student discourse, and greater time spent in cognitive processing. (GDC)

Relates the experience of a teacher who discovered that students enjoy studying literature if they are allowed to experience it rather than analyze it. Contends that the effort to teach books at the secondary level using literary criticism is a misguided response to a national literacy crisis. (SRT)

Techniques for providing variety and effectiveness within the lecture format are described, including the oral essay, participatory lecture, problem-solving approach, alternating mini-lectures and discussions, modeling analytical skills, debate, simulation and role-playing, and the affective/emotional media lecture. (MSE)

Reports on the various ways teachers use textbooks to make assignments for discussion and offers a checklist for teachers interested in analyzing their own use of text in discussion. (HOD)

Discusses ways in which personal and digressive talk can develop young readers' responses to literature. (HOD)

Finds that sixth- and eighth-grade students were equally able to participate in discussions of books, answering many questions at interpretive and evaluative levels of thinking. (HOD)

Used a lexical statistics program to analyze conflict and nonconflict discussions of two different groups of college students. Found preliminary evidence for a pattern of greater redundancy and less vocabulary diversity for the discussion groups in conflict. (PD)

This book explores the ways in which teachers can use critical literacy as a framework for teaching and learning. The book shares the varied experiences of its authors as they attempt to put a critical edge on students' classroom discussions about books and other texts, and thus create spaces for critical literacy in the K-6 classroom. Each…

This paper points up, in the case of a particular class discussion, the crucial role that the Trace tool could play as potential semiotic mediator for the notion of function. In particular, the episode we are presenting here want to show how the idea of trajectory developed through a specific sequence of activities, carried out in Cabri and…

Since 1996, states have been responsible for moving people from the welfare rolls into jobs. The results have been mixed, and states are still struggling to find the right combination of programs to help individuals and families make that transition. Most people agree that it is best if they find jobs, but not everyone has the skills to land jobs,…

In the research conducted, the relationship between teaching complexity and children's mathematical thinking was investigated in 4 "reform" classes and 1 conventional elementary class (7-8 years). Forty lessons were analyzed for the type of teaching and children's mathematical thinking revealed during class discussion. The results indicate…