Describes several techniques of informal assessment which might supplement test results. (DD)

Reviews research on the value of innovative and traditional methods of teaching language and encourages teachers to provide classroom opportunities for students to communicate and to teach language skills. (DD)

Presents concerns about children's growth as oral and written language users and how disagreements over teaching strategies can affect this growth. (SRT)

Presents a variety of social contexts for verbal interaction between adult and child and between children. Discusses the variations in interaction caused by different contexts, as well as features that are consistent across contexts. (HTH)

Discusses recent research highlighting both the child's growth as a reflective language user and the school's capacity to enhance or hamper that growth. The research is concerned with the need for children eventually to use language in decontextualized ways, without the supporting context of visible or manipulable objects or actions. (HTH)

Reports preliminary findings from a study of kindergartners using LOGO in a computer laboratory. The study highlights the oral language that occurs while children produce computer graphics. (HTH)

Asserts that observation is the key to discovering what non-native students already know about English and what their inclinations and abilities are when they enter the classroom. Documents a first-grade teacher's experiences with second-language learners in her classroom. (MM)

Defines the value of classroom research in terms of three paradoxes: (1) it steps back by taking an intimate look; (2) it yields a holistic view but also reveals the dynamics of its parts; and (3) it is a unique whole and a part of inquiry into language and learning. (RS)

Claims that although a child-oriented classroom is organized by the teacher, the curriculum is enacted by everyone, and that dialogues in which teachers and children develop together provides the core of this enactment. (MM)

Presents case studies of two first-grade children, examining their writing as a linguistic and social process that involves the child in an exploration of both oral and written language within the social context of the classroom. (HTH)

Discusses the complex interplay between adults' and children's choices by introducing Henry James' fictional character, Maisie. Examines aspects of first graders' computer use, and considers how adult-determined purposes of the curriculum correspond with children's own worlds. Urges educators to make curriculum choices in collaboration with…