This article discusses how parents can use the Language Experience Approach and Scaffolded Writing in the home environment to teach their children literacy skills and to prevent school failure. The benefits of parent involvement in influencing the quality and quantity of a child's literacy experiences is stressed. (Contains references.) (CR)

Discussion of synchronous computer mediated communications over the Internet focuses on the opportunities and pitfalls of using graphical chat programs in education. Topics include two-dimensional and three-dimensional chat programs; distance education; problem solving groups; exploring cultural differences; language skill development;…

Describes how the author and her middle school students created the Writer's Club Web Site, a forum for information, creative expression, interaction about writing, and publication. Notes how writing, revising, editing, and publishing this web site promoted student ownership of information, collaboration, and audience awareness, and a genuine…

Pepi Leistyna's book "Presence of Mind" discusses how schools of education deter teachers from understanding the world's complex political, historical, social, and economic realities. Educators must develop what C. Wright Mills called the "sociological imagination." Developing critical consciousness and varied, multicultural…

A case study of a graduate student with language-learning disorders is used to demonstrate the development of self-determination abilities. Academic and communication interventions were used to foster development of the student's self-knowing and self-valuing as the basis for becoming a self-determined individual. The role of the speech-language…

Describes an exploration the author and his seventh-grade students undertook as they wrote essays about objects of personal significance. Describes how they examined a piece of literature (an essay) as a model for their own writing, how they spent some time talking and listening to one another about their personal objects, and how they then wrote…

Discusses five books for young adults by author Yoshiko Uchida. Notes that these books, accessible to children in grades 5 and above, describe the prejudice against Japanese Americans, internment camps, and upheaval, sorrow, and anger spawned by the American government's racist actions. Shows how the books can prompt discussions about cultural…

Shows how ICT (Information and Communications Technology), particularly the World Wide Web, was used for the study of English in a psychology course at the University of Granada (Spain). Discusses the development of learner autonomy and describes the course Web site. (Author/LRW)

Proposes that the unique features of electronic text can interact with the special skills, abilities, and diverse experiences of English language learners to help us better understand both the goals, processes, and special characteristics of the bilingual experience and the acquisition of electronic literacy skills. (Contains 29 references.)…

Examined how predominantly female, white preservice teachers' knowledge and beliefs about language issues changed after an intensive multicultural education course. Data from surveys and course assignments indicated that students made significant gains in three areas: personal beliefs about diversity; professional beliefs about diversity; and…

Offers additional means of evaluating parent speech by examining frequencies of individual nouns, verbs, and descriptors, and examining the learning task presented to children. Study one examines transcripts from the CHILDES database of English-speaking parents' speech to children at five developmental levels; study two examines 50 transcripts of…

Discusses the life and artwork of Bill Traylor, who started his art career late in life, focusing on his work "Scary Creature." Provides accompanying project ideas in the areas of history/technology, theater, language arts, debate, social studies, visual arts, and mathematics. (CMK)

Describes elementary and secondary school projects in Victoria, Australia using telematics and interactive television. Provides an overview of telematics management and implementation and discusses lessons learned, professional communication, teaching materials, and future developments. Outlines programs enriching primary school science,…

Investigated beliefs of preschool teachers from Head Start, public school, and special education programs concerning the importance of developmental skills and abilities in three domains of early functioning: social-emotional, language and literacy, and early math. Found that teachers from all three groups, but especially special education…

Examines two days of teacher-led large group discussion in a 5th grade class about a mathematical question intended to support student exploration of relationships among fraction and decimal representations and rational numbers. Illuminates the teacher's work in supporting student thinking through the use of a mathematical question embedded in a…