Presents hand-on, standards-based activities in language arts, math, science, and social studies, including a daily almanac; bookmark buddies; word palettes; bowling for numbers; math thought teasers; plant puzzles; fingerprint fun; a travel bureau; and an end-of-the-year bulletin board of people involved in interesting activities. Reproducible…

Presents information on the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) and the Early Adolescence/English Language Arts (EA/ELA) assessment. Comments on "insiders and outsiders" as a guiding metaphor and on the differences in positioning of teachers as insiders to assessment development, administration, and evaluation and…

Addresses what standards for English teachers should be and how they should work. Questions the value of the standards movement as it is playing out in the United States, especially as a vehicle for school reform. Suggests ways of positioning standards within a different rhetoric. (RS)

Supports ideas for implementing John H. Ritter's "Choosing Up Sides" and "Over the Wall" as touchstone texts in a middle school language arts program. Discusses these two novels and the use and power of metaphors. Reveals literary connections made by young adolescent readers and writers strengthening overall comprehension, synthesis and analysis…

Music can be a powerful force in the language arts classroom and an important vehicle for teachers who want to lead students into literature. The paper discusses the power of popular music to first attract students, notes how to use other musical genres, describes guided listening, and explains important parallels between poetry and song. (SM)

Argues that regular homophone practice enhances vocabulary knowledge, spelling skills, pronunciation ability, and overall reading proficiency. Describes how card games played with decks of homophones helped to accomplish these things. Notes particular benefits of homophone games to English-as-a-second-language students, and outlines key advantages…

Describes how some student teachers and cooperating teachers guided pupils in learning phonics through a study of rhyming poetry. Discusses class activities involved in teaching couplets, triplets, imagery in poetry, quatrains, alliteration, limericks, and onomatopoeia, and the rhyme and phonics elements involved. (SR)

Argues that children's points of view shape knowledge in the classroom and are central to the development of children's writing and learning. Finds points of view by referring to examples of talk and writing; explains how cultural and personal factors come into play; and proposes that points of view become an explicit aspect of instruction,…

Describes how poetry and teaching poetry is a way to pay attention to the world, to feel connected to other people--a conduit to each student's truest discoveries, offering solace and courage and wisdom and survival. (SR)

Describes the picture book rendition of the operatic story "Aida" (based on the opera composed by G. Verdi) as retold by opera diva Leontyne Price. Describes how this picture book is appropriate for introducing adolescent readers to opera. Describes specific activities for music classes, musical resources, specific art activities, and…

Outlines principles for assessments that are supportive of teaching and learning, and discusses qualities that such assessments must have in order to be useful for reporting information to the public. Introduces a language-arts assessment (the Elementary Literacy Profiles) designed to embody these principles and qualities so that it will be…

Describes and discusses various attempts made by a student teacher to improve the discussions in her English classroom. Describes how she used structured discussions, learned from chaotic discussions, and facilitated discussion through a mock trial. Notes progress in facilitating discussions that were on task and that incorporated students'…

Describes the trial and error process over a three-year period in which a group of English teachers developed district-level content and performance standards for writing. Describes workshops which led to action research teams. Argues they did three things right: invented their own standards, shared the inventions with colleagues, and learned to…

Presents annotations of 30 notable children's books in all genres (published in 1996). Includes suggestions of experiences, activities, and related literature for each work of literature. (RS)

Sets a discussion of how masculine identities are negotiated in school within a larger discussion of the relationship between pleasure, bliss, and the language arts. Concludes with three lessons learned: (1) openness solves certain problems, even as it creates others; (2) bodies and texts are different; and (3) interpretation and power matter. (SR)