Discusses disciplinary actions against the principal of a small, suburban elementary school in Westchester County, New York, from several vantage points: the legal story, the whole-language story, the leadership story, and the school in the community story. Discusses the struggle of public schools both to constitute and to relate to the policies…

Discusses the long-standing tension between code emphasis and meaning emphasis approaches to reading instruction. The swing from phonics to whole language and back again is described. Collaboration between remedial specialists and regular education teachers to reduce the incidence of children who require special help is urged. (Author/CR)

This article describes the quest of an elementary special educator to create an effective reading program that would motivate students, as well as one that would address the students' Individualized Education Programs. Allowing the students to help select books and integrating writing activities had a positive effect on the students. (Contains…

Presents evidence of learning outcomes in reading from the use of software incorporating two very different styles of learning, structured sub-skills tutoring (using an Integrated Learning System) versus free reading (using a talking book), but which both heavily exploit multimedia presentation. Shows that current debates about whole-word versus…

Offers the author's reflections on how and why she adjusted her limited implementation of whole language teaching by integrating literature and writing, using novels that reflect issues of significance to students, having students write for real audiences, and creating democracy in the classroom where students think, discuss, and act critically on…

This article describes the whole-language philosophy of teaching reading and writing and its application to teaching braille reading to blind children. It suggests activities that are effective for enhancing the development of early reading behaviors in children who use braille and that integrate the critical components of literacy learning with…

Examines the extent to which curriculum-based measurement (CBM) procedures can be implemented in a nonbasal reading curricula. Participants included 160 students from 31 second- through fifth-grade classrooms in two school districts. Discusses results in relation to CBM as an applied measurement methodology for use in both practical and research…

Describes how the introduction of information books into a first grade classroom led a "traditional" teacher to provide students with a wider variety of literary experiences and allow students the opportunity for more active involvement in books. Notes that the classroom evolved into a child-centered environment where each child reads and writes…

Discusses the Question-Answer Relationship (QAR) that is an instructional activity designed to help students work with a standard feature of reading: answering questions based on a text. Asserts that the QAR strategy has tremendous potential to help students learn important social studies content through the study of children's literature. (CMK)

Intended for those practitioners and parents who have heard the term "whole language" but who really know little or nothing about it, this booklet looks at the learning or acquisition of language, which includes the processes of thinking, listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Chapters in the book, after an introduction, are, as…

Designed to be a resource to help educational practitioners, researchers, and other interested persons in the national and international community to understand terms used in contemporary and historical writings about literacy, this dictionary provides authenticated definitions of the technical terminology of the nature, study, and practice of…

Attention deficit disorder (ADD) is examined from the standpoint of teaching reading, and strategies are offered for teaching youngsters who are having difficulty reading due to ADD. Examples of students and scenarios are included. A definition of ADD is presented, along with symptoms that are consistent with inattention and disorganization that…

This article reports that curriculum experts see some slow but significant shifts in thinking regarding the role of literature in the K-12 curriculum. The article first discusses changes in elementary classrooms, such as the use of "real" literature in the form of trade books. Also considered is the call for new basal readers or content…

Concerns are being raised in both professional literature as well as in the popular press regarding certain aspects of the literature-based movement. A longitudinal study investigated a group of first-grade teachers who have been attempting (with varying degrees of success) to introduce literature-based teaching strategies into their classrooms.…

While university researchers cannot agree on a model for teaching literature, or even what literary knowing is, the training for literature that prospective elementary teachers receive is totally that of teaching reading. Such education is unrelated to reading and responding to literature. Even when preservice elementary teachers do receive…