Talking Points - Volume 16, Issue 2, 2005

Editors Bess Altwerger and Prisca Martens introduce readers to the articles in this issue of Talking Points and encourage all to attend the WLU Summer Institute in July.

The two authors describe what happens when Jo Healy Stahl’s tenth-grade students in Florida correspond with a class of eleventh-graders in Sweden Modeled after the National Writing Projects’ Rural Voices Radio CDs, this activity requires both sets of students to research and write about the area where they live (or grew up).

Parent-researcher Bobbie Kabuto studies and describes her young daughter Emma’s book-handling behaviors as part of a larger study of the ways in which Emma co-constructs language, both in English and in Japanese, in a bilingual sociocultural context.

Stevenson and Camerata discuss the many problems inherent in using the Accelerated Reader Program, even in schools where not all classes are participating. The program controls the curriculum by determining which books students may read, and the competitive nature of the program puts pressure on students without allowing time for other literary activities.

Holm questions the value and authenticity of the class-assigned letter to a children’s book author and offers suggestions for making the teaching of letter writing more “real” for students.

One result of NCLB has been to blame students and teachers for low scores on high-stakes tests that are now required. Rick Meyers says that a less punitive, more helpful approach would be to address the social and economic conditions that hold students back.

The device of using multiple perspectives in a book for children or young adults is helpful in creating understanding of other points of view. But just because a book contains multiple perspectives doesn’t mean it contains all possible perspectives. The authors look at one book in particular, Voices in the Park, and examine what the four viewpoints in that story do and don’t tell us.

Contains a message from the president of WLU, Amy Seely Flint; reports from various WLU committees; and information on WLU membership and the upcoming Literacies for All Summer Institute.