Language Arts - Volume 75, Issue 4, 1998

Offers a peek inside the journals kept by a well-known language-arts educator, which he uses as a repository for his thoughts, drawings, articles of interest, notes from conversations with others on his own work, the work of others, and education in general. Shows how the journal is an "audit trail" of its owner’s learning.

Explains why implementing integrated curricula is probably a lost cause in the long term. Argues that there are hidden possibilities in a fragmented school curriculum that, ironically, may provide teachers with more opportunities to respond to both their own and students’ needs. Presents evidence from a comparative study of three school libraries.

Examines why some pre- and inservice teachers concluded that certain children’s books were inappropriate for children because the books might frighten or corrupt children; fail to represent dominant social values or myths; or identify racism or sexism as a social problem. Describes how these criteria are consciously applied.

Finds that the 35 middle-school language-arts teachers studied agreed that Self Selected Reading (SSR) is an important way to improve students’ reading attitudes and achievement, but that their schools rarely provided funds for buying student-preferred materials, and that finding time for SSR was difficult because of the pressure to prepare for tests and cover skills.

Shifts the terms of the "great debate" from technical questions about teaching method to questions about how various kinds of literacies work within communities--matters of government cutbacks and institutional downsizing, shrinking resource and taxation bases, and of students, communities, teachers, and schools trying to cope with rapid and unprecedented economic, social, and technological change.

Describes what some fifth-grade students read in the summer and why. Discusses 39 children’s books in the following categories: summer experiences, trips and journeys, family experiences, and the lives of children in troubled times. Offers an excerpt from a discussion of middle school readers in response to reading the books on children in troubled times.

Discusses two series of professional books (dealing with an integrated approach to literacy instruction and using poetry to help children feel the music of language) as well as three poetry collections that will be of interest to both teachers and teacher educators.

Available in print version only.