Outlines one junior high school's method of improving students' reading habits through a book fair, a book exchange club, and a weekly read-in. (MM)

Essays argue that (1) unions can translate professional concerns into action; (2) unions need to concentrate more on the professional concern of improving education; and (3) only a national teachers union has the membership, staff, and strength to deal effectively with the multitude of concerns facing contemporary education. (MM)

Argues that to use computers to help teach the writing process, English teachers must develop both short- and long-term plans for computer usage and must insist on helping to select their school's hardware and software. (MM)

Describes how having students draw both their own and a literary character's reality not only introduces students, quite painlessly and concretely, to a large number of literary terms, but also suggests that literature appreciation demands an imaginative extension into the life of another. (MM)

Uses experiences with remedial readers to urge that reading must have a purpose--one purpose ultimately linked to the need for beauty, humor, and order. (MM)

Presents examples of unintentional humor from college freshman composition courses. Suggests that by pointing out miscommunications, teachers can persuade students to use standard English more effectively. (MM)

Argues that students must be encouraged to discover their personal reactions to literature rather than to parrot the teacher's response. (MM)

Describes the interest, commitment, and good writing that developed from students' production of a book of nonfiction, fiction, and poetry about their local area. (MM)

Cites research suggesting that extensive reading is as effective as intensive reading in developing general reading ability and is more effective in promoting good attitudes among elementary and secondary school students toward reading. (MM)

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)

Reviews the general classes of biographies written about Shakespeare and suggests that no simple connection between his work and his life can be drawn. (MM)

Explains how the literary metaphor of the quest can be used as a tool in self-explorations. (MM)

Examines: (l) disagreements with publishers during 36 years of authoring textbooks, (2) difficulties of co-authoring textbooks in view of the haste with which they are produced, (3) necessity for high textbook standards from both teachers and publishers, (4) the fact that there are few textbooks authored by teachers. (NKA)

Reports on the visit to Japan of a 60-year-old man who had last been there over 40 years ago. Relates several amusing anecdotes about language fluency and Japanese customs, mostly based on the changes a language undergoes in the passage of many years and the importance of an up-to-date vocabulary. (NKA)

Presents an overview of the competing visions of the literature curriculum currently being advanced. Also presents the historical roots of the approaches, as well as the assumptions about learning and adolescents that each approach makes. (NKA)