Examines why videos are a good staff development tool. Discusses 14 recent educational videos appropriate for staff development in individual, small-group, or large-group settings. Notes responses from primary teachers and from pre-service teachers about the videos reviewed. (SR)

Discusses briefly 6 professional books that discuss and illustrate skill instruction within a balanced approach to reading. Intends to help teachers think through and justify the professional decisions they make to support every student's development toward becoming a lifelong reader. (SR)

Discusses materials that help primary-grade students develop a richer supply of words: books, audiotapes, and magnetic poetry kits for teachers and/or for students. (SR)

Discusses three books that can be helpful to teachers in demonstrating the connections between thinking and writing with journals, thus offering good models for "thinking journals." Notes that these books cover a wide range: beginning journal writers, professional journal writers, and the journal writer in all people. (SR)

Discusses the policy of silence (and its complex reasons) that often rules when it comes to teaching and learning about race, religion, ethnicity, and sexuality. Discusses briefly five books and articles that deal with breaking this silence, and offers observations about effective multiculturalism in the classroom. (SR)

Argues that a portfolio is a place for teachers to organize information, demonstrate growth and development, and make their thinking visible, but also allows them to monitor and manage their own learning--truly a professional development tool. Reviews briefly four books on teacher portfolios. (SR)

Concludes that the instrument reviewed is a carefully designed test incorporating a new interpretation of standardization and improved definitions of traditional reading levels. (FL)

Offers a five-point checklist that educators might use to determine the content validity of materials labeled whole language. Recommends "The Whole Language Sourcebook" and the "Story Box" program as high content validity materials. (MG)

Recommends four books which describe how to teach children to read and write about real-world matters. States that children who are engaged with meaningful materials that they have helped select and tasks they have helped plan require less extrinsic motivation than those who are assigned meaningless materials and tasks. (MG)

Reviews two tests which highlight important trends in the assessment of learning disabilities, and presents potentially valuable, practical developments in assessment. Identifies the recurring problem of the lack of a theory, construct, or clear definition to guide the assessment of learning disabilities. (MG)

Reviews children's literature with multi-dimensional, engaging characters--characters with strengths and weaknesses who grapple with real problems and find real solutions. (MG)

Examines materials designed to improve children's writing or composition abilities. Focuses on whether the materials have students use the task/strategy/skill in such a way that they can transfer the task to other materials in reading or writing situations that serve a real function. (MG)

Recommends four resources (including basal materials) to use when designing reading-language arts curricula for classroom or school districts. (MG)

Reviews the recently released Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test, Third Edition. Identifies the test as one which is widely used by school systems to measure students' reading progress in instructional settings. (MG)

Describes computer software, including "The Electronic Bookshelf" and "Return to Reading," which provides motivation for recreational reading in various ways, including: quizzes, games based on books, and whole language activities for children's literature and young adult fiction. (MM)