Offers a five-point checklist that educators might use to determine the content validity of materials labeled whole language. Recommends "The Whole Language Sourcebook" and the "Story Box" program as high content validity materials. (MG)

Analyzes the distinction between utterance and writing to determine why students have difficulty using specific details to explore their generalizations. Describes successful strategies and assignments to encourage student awareness of text and concrete expression. (KEH)

Reviews research on the portrayal of the elderly in United States print media. Finds that children are learning subtle stereotypes of the elderly. Offers recommendations to editors, publishers, writers, illustrators, and teachers to help children develop more realistic attitudes toward both the elderly and the aging process. (RS)

A procedure was devised in which message content was provided to four nonvocal, severely palsied quadriplegic adults in advance, and investigators elicited the messages via subjects' yes/no gestures. Results indicated reasonably high correspondence between stimulus messages and messages elicited. (Author/JDD)

Discussion of the role of a visual designer in media programing highlights the relationship between content, design, and technical aspects. Collaborative effort between the content expert, the instructional developer, and the technical staff is described, the role of style is discussed, and the function of communication is emphasized. (LRW)

Many drug education programs send a mixed and confusing message to students. Others are clearly wrong. Cites examples and advises administrators to conduct a critical review of all drug education programs. (MLF)

Compares selected authentic children's literature trade books with versions of them in 1993 basal readers from five textbook publishers across grade levels one, three, and five. Finds that publisher censorship still exists; important story elements are lost when illustrations are omitted; and readers miss important developments when only parts of…

Analyzes various elementary school social studies publications to determine Columbus's treatment as a heroic figure as well as treatment of the native perspective and factual accuracy. The analysis looks at frequency of appearance, the descriptive adjectives used, his presentation pictorially, and critical thinking questions asked about him.…

A content analysis was conducted of the 12 prime-time television programs most preferred by children and adolescents to determine verbal statements about sexual issues. On average, 29% of interactions on an individual episode referred to sexual issues. Results are discussed concerning adolescents' uses of this input. (SLD)

Finds that in almost two-thirds of the cases studied, in which organizations responded to public charges of sexual harassment, legal strategy--rather than public relations strategy--was used by official spokespersons. Argues that organizations need to reconcile the often contradictory counsel of public relations and legal professionals. (SR)

Presents the background, rationale, and implementation prospects for an international system of monitoring media coverage of global problems such as peace and war, human rights, and the environment. Outlines the monitoring project carried out in January 1995 concerning the representation and portrayal of women in news media. (SR)

Describes a study of journal-keeping to focus business students' attention on their listening behaviors and the need for improvement. Finds that the journal, combined with content analysis procedures, can be used successfully to identify students' listening behavior problems so that a targeted training regimen can be designed to address those…

Finds that the new basals are different from the old basals, that students' rating and rankings of the old and new basals are consistent with the researchers', and that teachers varied in the ways that they used basal materials and in their views of the construction of knowledge. (SR)

Proposes an argumentation-based method for information retrieval that involves representing a scholarly article by means of rhetorical structure rather than by a semantic representation of content. Topics addressed include problems with indexing practices, the argumentative nature of articles, rhetoric as an information categorizing schema, and…

Analyzes the themes presented in nine selected Nigerian female-authored novels written in English for young adolescents. Examines characterization in these novels to see whether there are elements of sex stereotyping, and discusses the novels' suitability. (SR)