Discusses materials in the ERIC system exploring the effect of teacher attitudes toward student dialects on student language performance. Suggests that teachers recognize the relationship between cultural identity and language use to clear away obstacles to student success. (HTH)

Summarizes a study that investigated teachers' three favorite books as a child and what they felt to be the three best and the three most popular children's books now. Compares the results to a similar study conducted in 1949. (HTH)

Offers teachers of upper elementary grade students practical guidelines for learning how their students respond to literature and how to use this information in the classroom. (HTH)

Explores the philosophy behind Haiku and discusses 11 characteristics basic to this form of poetry to help teachers better understand it. (HTH)

Recounts the writing career of Laura Ingalls Wilder, the origins of her "Little House" books, and her collaboration with her daughter to have the first book published during the Depression. (HTH)

Identifies three "formula plots" found in children's literature, outlines ideas for introducing a formula story, and discusses strategies for examining stories of all three plot types, including retelling them and comparing them with other stories. Includes a bibliography of stories using the three plot formulas discussed. (HTH)

Recounts a classroom visit by children's poet and illustrator Karla Kuskin, and the flurry of activity and preparation that preceded her visit. (HTH)

Discusses the themes and elements prevalent in historical fiction and reviews several quality works of historical fiction for young readers. (HTH)

Examines Walt Disney's formula for reducing children's literature to mass entertainment, as well as the liberties he took in interpreting the literature on which he based his animated films. (HTH)

Cites materials in the ERIC system dealing with the importance of using good literature for children's reading materials, as well as suggestions to help teachers bring children and good books together. (HTH)

Surveys the state of writing research, research needed in the 1980s, and how teachers need to be involved in that research. (HTH)

Reviews instructional materials and teaching guides for reading and comprehension. (HTH)

Responds to a report by the Commission of the Humanities that concluded the humanities need rethinking as much as support, explores the ways that teaching methods have jeopardized humanistic education. (HTH)

Irreverently examines Rudolph Flesch's theories for teaching a child to read "properly." Alternatives to Flesch's method are also given. (HTH)

Compares the stages of print awareness in two children to emphasize the developmental stages of literacy. Emphasizes the importance of parents and teachers responding appropriately as children develop their reading and writing skills. (HTH)