English Language Arts/ Parent Participation
Re-presenting Memories to Preserve a Legacy
The author shows how her mother managed to connect with her students many of them immigrants in a tiny schoolhouse over fifty years ago. Her testimonial bears witness to the deeply personal nature of teaching and learning.
Interview with Donald Graves
The editors interview Donald Graves who has inspired countless teachers through his books about learning especially writing. The focus of the interview is on the personal experiences that have shaped Graves’s understanding of literacy.
The Writing’s on the Wall: Musings from Childhood
In this short essay Jane Baskwill shares how her preschool writing experiences shaped her literacy development.
From the Editors
The editors discuss the articles in this issue which aims to help educators better identify social and cultural influences that shape identity and that help or hinder communication.
Wlu Business
WLU President Amy Seely Flint updates members on the events of the organization and discusses its financial needs. The Executive Board’s strategic plan for WLU is also presented here.
Toward a Constructive Analysis of Peers’ Writing
By taking his students bowling Michael Muise teaches them the importance of strong and substantive peer critique when revising one’s writing.
Addressing Sexual Identity in Literature: Teachers’ Perceptions and Comfort Levels
Many teachers shy away from frank discussions about the gay and lesbian identity of well-known authors and in so doing unconsciously perpetuate assumptions and stereotypes.
Story Time
This short essay presents a brief literary portrait of the author’s family and one of her students.
Interview with Steve Hanamura
Allen Koshewa interviews Steve Hanamura regarding his view of tolerance and his ideas about the impact of diversity education on literacy.
Did You Know about… NCTE Reading Initiative
Kathy Egawa presents an overview of the NCTE Reading Initiative a professional development program for teachers that is based on study groups. Instead of presenting a blueprint for how to operate the Reading Initiative experiences and materials give study group members a series of engagements and professional readings that can be tailored in response to local issues.
Overcoming the Silence of Generational Poverty
Donna Beegle speaks from both personal and professional points of view as she presents her research on college graduates who come from generational poverty. She discusses the barriers to education faced by students from poverty backgrounds and suggests some strategies that teachers can use to help reach these students.
Have You Seen… Rethinking Globalization
A review of the book Rethinking Globalization: Teaching for Justice in an Unjust World by Bill Bigelow and Bob Peterson which examines social issues with global implications and discusses ways to present these topics in the classroom.
Taking Another Turn: A Retrospective on the NCTE Spring Conference
The 2002 NCTE Spring Conference marked the end of a 30-year era and the beginning of yet another. Follow along with a little conference history and then help us envision a new form for the now on-hiatus spring meeting.
Interview with Shelley Harwayne
During the 2002 NCTE Annual Convention in November editors Peggy Albers and Allen Koshewa spent time talking with Shelley Harwayne founder of the Manhattan New School who since this interview has been named one of ten new regional superintendents for New York City’s public school system.
Did You Know about… The Southern Poverty Law Center
The Southern Poverty Law Center began as a small civil rights law firm in 1971. Now it is internationally known for its tolerance education programs its legal victories against white supremacist groups its tracking of hate groups and its sponsorship of the Civil Rights Memorial
“Our Fine School”: Facing Issues of Bigotry
Patricia illustrates her continual challenges as a Latina principal trying to face issues of bigotry
Culturally Responsive Schools: Leadership, Language, and Literacy Development
In this article Virginia shares her ideas for creating culturally responsive school and classroom environments that form a strong framework for the development of language and literacy.
Envisioning a World of Abundance for Urban Youth
The state of Pennsylvania has one of the poorest records for equality in public school funding. This article describes how administrators in the Harrisburg School District one of our low-funded urban school districts attempt to promote literacy and lift students from low-income families out of a failure cycle that many assume is irreversible.
Build the Environment, and We Will Win
Discover how Superintendent Juan Garza creates a district culture based on the firm belief that success lies largely in attitude.
To Feel the Fear of It: Engaging Young People in Social Education
Daniel Kelin Director of Drama Education at the Honolulu Theater for Youth shares his use of drama to forge a deeper understanding of historical events and the limits of many historically recorded outcomes.
Teaching Moral Education and Social Action through Drama
Discusses social action through drama.
The Promise of Drama Education: Voices from Britain
Literacy and arts educator Glennellen Pace serves as an ambassador of sorts pollinating the great practices between our two countries. Here she shares seven examples showcasing the use of drama in varied levels and varied contexts in Great Britain.
Understanding the Complexity of Social Issues through Process Drama
Middle level teacher Joanne O’Mara uses process drama as a means for her students to explore multiple perspectives. In the teaching vignette she shares here her class challenges their understanding of deforestation through dramatizing Judith Nichol’s A Poem for the Rainforest.
Interview with Vivian Paley
Allen Koshewa spoke with Ms. Paley about the importance of drama in her own classroom and in classrooms she has observed in recent years.
Playtime
Drama has served as an integral curriculum engagement across Canadian literacy educator Esther Fine’s career. From supporting the participation of the quietest students to helping resolve the conflicts of special education students she has learned there is no equivalent.
Rouge Forum: Bridging the Gap—Whole Language, Inclusion, and Critical Social Action
The Rouge Forum a group of students educators and parents is an organizational effort to bridge the gap between education and organizing for social change.
Troubling Democracy
In this essay Sharon explores the concept of democracy and considers how different “democracies” demand different actions from us in relation to schooling and society at large.
Multimodal Strategies: Using Art in the High School Language Arts Classroom
Since I began teaching six years ago I have always tried to approach my classroom as a creative “laboratory” so to speak where every novel unit and lesson is grounds for a connection of creativity and personal experience with the curriculum that must be covered. Of all my engagements I have found that the most successful ones almost always involve art.
“I Just Wanted to Raise a Nice Boy!”: Being Critical and Political
Shows how progressive educational practices have come to challenge cultural norms and will trace the evolution of his own philosophy and practice.
Whole Schooling Consortium: Building a Network to Promote Education for a Democratic Society
Members of the Whole Schooling Consortium were delighted to co-sponsor the Whole Language Umbrella conference in Chicago in July. Because of this new alliance we want to introduce you to the Whole Schooling Consortium and invite your participation in this growing network.
Changing Positions/Changing Perspectives
Good teaching and learning are built upon trust and strong relationships between universities and schools. In the 1997-98 school year we undertook a role reversal that taught us more than this. Although our goals were to experience “the other perspective” in order to better understand the needs lives and experiences of St. Cloud State University’s (SCSU) preservice teachers we ultimately learned as much about our own teaching—and ourselves as teachers—as we did about students.
Whole Language in Israel
Suggests that whole language is alive and well in Israel and that like many countries trying to educate multiethnic multilingual populations there is a strong interest in whole language as a democratic innovative pedagogy built on scientific foundations. Notes the Ministry of Education encourages whole language approaches but the teachers' union and some academics have attacked whole language.
“We Won't Back Down!” Political Action in Ontario
Discusses educators’ responses to the attempts to take over the educational system by the government of Ontario Canada. Discusses the background to the crisis the “Final Straw” (Bill 160) public relations and the largest work stoppage by educators in North America (October 1997) and lessons learned from the political protests.
New Insights: Eye Fixations and the Reading Process
New computer technology offers a tool for following the path and focus of the eyes during reading. Reading educator and researcher Peter Duckett reveals the complexity of what goes on as readers read.
Using Portfolios as Manipulatives to Encourage Deeper Thinking
I was taking a chance. Not with my drawings but with encouraging students to think deeply about their portfolios. I was hoping that by showing students the growth in my drawings I could help them see the growth in their writing.
What I Learned at the WLU Conference
Describes things the author learned from presentations at the 2001 Whole Language Umbrella conference including: not many classroom teachers attended the conference; classroom teachers and professors need each other; people take pride in the whole language name; the most powerful force in a classroom is an expert teacher; and building a community is always a work in progress.
Interview with Patrick Shannon
Pat Shannon is Professor of Education at Penn State University. He writes widely on the politics of literacy and in particular the marketing of literacy. Peggy Albers talked with him in November 2001 about his interpretation of how literacy is marketed in schools today.
What’s Going on with … Kittye Copeland
The editors use this column to interview individuals who are active and well known in WLU. Kittye Copeland is a specialist with the public schools working with Title I projects and other literacy services. She is the past president of WLU and we caught up with her in Nashville at the 2000 conference.
Don’t Steal the Struggle! The Commercialization of Literacy and Impact on Teachers
According to Hibbert “[i]ncreasingly it seems the predominance of market ideology is seeping into education (Engel 2000) and literacy is no exception.”
We Need an Education Rights Movement
This speech was delivered at the 2001 Whole Language Umbrella Conference in Chicago Illinois.
The NRP Comparison of Whole Language and Phonics: Ignoring the Crucial Variable in Reading
In this article Krashen examines the results of the NRP’s comparison of skills-based and whole language approaches through the lens of reading comprehension. His findings reveal that even when one accepts the restrictions on what is acceptable research imposed by the panel when one considers the actual amount of reading done by children and examines the results for tests of reading comprehension the research does not show that skills-based methods are superior.
Grocery Lists, Shopping, and a Child’s Writing and Spelling Developmen
Discusses the case of a parent who enrolled her daughter in an after-school literacy program after being told she was not succeeding in school. Notes the teacher was by turns suspicious of and uninterested in the techniques used in the program. Examines the girl’s development as a learner as she worked with her mother on developing weekly grocery lists.
When “Holiday Magic” Hurts
Claims that religious messages in public school are not acceptable and are hurtful to kids who do not subscribe to the beliefs expressed in those messages. Describes the author’s personal experience in witnessing the marginalizing effect of a public school holiday pageant on some of the students.