Outlines the highlights of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) 2001 Baltimore convention. Explains the Teacher of Excellence Awards, which identifies outstanding high school English language arts teachers. Comments on a selection of a new editor for the "English Journal," and details new initiatives as well as the Portland Reading…

Discusses the many benefits of service learning, and offers examples from the author's high school students. Notes literacy and language arts service learning projects; the importance of integrating service learning into a regular program of instruction; programs and resource materials that support service learning at the K-12 level; and students'…

Argues that an understanding of developments in the 1890s (when disparate strands were brought together as one discipline--English--along with a movement toward uniform standards) can inform responses to current movements and initiatives. Outlines 5 significant initiatives that came to the author's attention during his editorship of "English…

Offers remarks on English teaching published in professional journals from 1886 to 1917, discussing the following questions: "Do I teach students or English or both?"; "Under what circumstances is English teaching done well?"; "What are the consequences of focused attention on English teaching?"; "With what challenges is the English teacher…

Discusses the work and contributions of Lou LaBrant, who became president of the National Council of Teachers of English in 1954, and who was one of the foremost progressive practitioners of reading and writing instruction. Discusses her research, her teaching, her experience, and her lifelong insistence that the writing curriculum had to be…

Discusses the work of New Zealand educator and writer Sylvia Ashton-Warner. Describes her organic philosophy and how it is the basis for whole-language teaching; describes her Key Vocabulary method. Discusses adapting organic learning and whole language to upper-level literacy teaching. Discusses group inquiry learning and personalized teaching.…

Suggests elements of the basic structure of the National Council of Teachers of English has remained the same for decades, while other elements have grown. Looks at positive growth in NCTE over the last two decades of the 20th century, noting research, women's issues, the standards wars, and affiliates as political bases. Describes two important…

Argues that literature from other countries, taught as multicultural literature, must be taught in the context of its own literary tradition in order to provide high-quality academic instruction. Offers an example with Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "One-Hundred Years of Solitude" to show how teaching multicultural literature can live up to its…

Points out that bringing technology into the schools illuminates, and perhaps exacerbates, the advantage that students from wealthy families have over students from poorer families. Notes that advocates for technology often have an agenda that has nothing to do with students' learning. Discusses what educators can do in the face of all this. (SR)

Offers a brief description of the Third International Conference for Global Conversations on Language and Literacy, held in Bordeaux, France, in August 1998. Gives brief summaries of five conference presentations or sessions. (SR)

Traces perspectives on gender and gender discrimination over the last several decades, as they affect schools and English classrooms. Discusses feminism/feminisms, "add women and stir," sex differences, resistance and backlash, intersections of identity categories, and multiculturalism. Argues that English teachers can be powerful agents in the…

Outlines the major issues and dilemmas regarding the Internet and education. Discusses in detail both its promise (with regard to communication; references and resources; publication; hypertext; hypertext and reading; hypertext and writing; and hypertext, image, and sound) and its problems (inappropriate and inaccurate materials, educational…

Suggests that through commenting on their own papers, students gradually develop a sense of an imagined external audience and of themselves as writer and audience. (MM)

Discusses the architectonics of four essays: John McPhee's "Travels in Georgia," Richard Rhodes'"Death All Day," and two by student writers. Diagrams each essay, showing how these writers built bridges of words over experiences. (SR)

Discusses two types of adjectival phrase: (1) the premodifying phrases derived from postmodifying equivalents, and (2) obligatory coordination with and between semantically similar pairs of premodifying adjectives. (Author/CFM)