Discusses uses learning logs for student assessment. Defines learning logs. Discusses structuring the logs; student voices and responses; a map drawing assignment; and using logs for evaluation. (RS)

Rejects grading student journals. Describes various approaches to journal writing evaluation the author used with her students and approaches used by her professors when she returned to school. Questions the educational process of grading student journals. Discusses how to create real dialog. (RS)

Discusses a teacher's reactions when a student commented on the teacher's short story. Discusses dealing with feedback, the vulnerability of writers, and attitude changes. Claims that writing with students shifted the focus of the teacher's writing instruction and the focus of students' writing. (RS)

Describes how to create a rubric for portfolios which includes quantity and quality. Presents suggestions for implementing a two-tiered portfolio rubric. (RS)

Claims that asking students to evaluate their own reading and writing encourages more authentic assessment. Discusses guiding reflection in writing and reading workshops, and teacher responsibility for grading. Presents student comments that show students are able to self-evaluate and improve their efforts to justify higher ratings. (RS)

Discusses a collaborative writing project where all students, regardless of ability, can demonstrate their understanding of Homer's "Odyssey" by writing a contemporary odyssey. Notes that students eagerly awaited and then read the final compilation of the project. (RS)

Discusses various ways to strike a balance between total teacher control and total student control of the assessment process in a high school American literature course. Discusses research projects, advertising flyers, newspapers, the "transcendental change plan," and the thematic mobile. (RS)

Argues that the "Standards for the English Language Arts" (SELA) gives English teachers direction. Discusses what "teaching English" means. Suggests that SELA is not a prescriptive list of measurement items nor a cookbook for skillful English teaching: SELA is a statement of principles of, for, and by professionals, and a K-12 statement of…

Suggests that the "Standards for the English Language Arts" (copublished by the National Council of Teachers of English and the International Reading Association) makes good sense about literature and almost none at all about literacy. Argues that for 99% of the school population, the de-emphasis of the "Standards" on formal written communication…

Traces the public furor that greeted the National Council of Teachers/International Reading Association's "Standards for the English Language Arts." Discusses responses to criticisms. Argues that the language in the "Standards" is flat; the standards are meant to be guidelines, not mandates; and the emphasis was on process. (RS)

Discusses twp English-as-a-second-language high school students whose language proficiencies are subtle. Discusses opportunities for such students to use language powerfully. Addresses attitude and student performance, and building lessons that lead to success. (RS)

Discusses having students dig deep into a novel to create material that demonstrates their understanding of the characters; and having students illustrate their understanding of poetry by the way they read it, by the music they select to have in the background, and by the connecting commentary that links poems together. Provides sample rubrics to…

Discusses how teaching middle school deepened and broadened a former high school teacher's notion of what it is to be a teacher. Describes the teacher's changing teaching strategies. Suggests that the teacher had faced up to an immensely difficult challenge--the opportunity to teach middle school students. (RS)

Weaves descriptions of 16 novels by Virginia Hamilton into an account of young adult literature that can be used to make effective connections across the disciplines. (RS)

Argues that the English language arts can play a major role in arriving at practical coherence in school curricula because of the unique nature of the discipline and the unique integrative role of language in human experience. Discusses literature in interdisciplinary English and the contributions of English to interdisciplinary curriculum. (SR)