Examines language and literacy practices in first- and fourth-grade classrooms in two schools in a small town in central Mexico. Explores how educators can expand their own understanding of reading and writing--and how to teach them--by considering the literacy practices of other countries. Uses Mexico, the country of origin of many students and…

Notes that in teacher study groups (TSG), teachers meet to converse and to study teaching and learning. Discusses key features of TSGs, TSGs in action, and benefits of TSGs. Suggests that it is important that each teacher begin exploring the topic of interest through his or her best learning mode. (SG)

Suggests that when teachers read to students they enhance students' understanding and their inclination to read independently. Considers how teachers in intermediate grades can use read-alouds more strategically and deliberately to promote thoughtful reading and content learning. (SG)

Provides suggestions and guidance to help students who are good readers, but have low self-efficacy for taking reading tests. Discusses four sources of self-efficacy: enactive mastery; vicarious experiences; verbal persuasion; and physiological/affective state. Concludes that these four sources provide a framework for developing and evaluating…

Contends that high stakes tests provide no useful or timely information to help teachers accomplish assessment goals, and they encourage an interactional climate that can undermine them. Outlines how assessments can improve learning. Concludes that since assessments of children, as enacted in classrooms, are part of the intellectual environment…

Examines the skills and abilities needed to interact with text on the Internet. Proposes that the Internet provides opportunities for interacting with new text formats, reader elements, and activities. Notes that it also expands and influences the sociocultural context in which a student learns to read. Considers the implications of a broader…

Notes that the goal of phonics instruction is to help students develop the alphabetic principle. Explains how the words "explicit" and "systematic" are used in multiple ways in the context of phonics instruction. Suggests that educators should engage in serious discussions about how multiple approaches to phonics instruction help children develop…

Hopes to supply literacy educators with multidisciplinary perspectives on literacy that lead to a broader, richer view of what it means to be literate. Examines how research in the fields of educational psychology, linguistics, anthropology, and critical theory has contributed to the understanding of literacy as a multilayered, complex phenomenon.…

Discusses how the National Reading Panel (NRP) report has become the basis for the push for research-based reading instruction as well as the source of a great deal of controversy and debate. Summarizes the NRP report and responds to 10 myths that have arisen in the hopes of clarification. Concludes that it would be best if educators and…

Attempts to define what counted as policy documents and discourse during the three days of a Reading Leadership Academy, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education. Presents a discourse and critical policy analysis of the Reading First initiative. Explores further the statements around what constituted good programs and, by inference, what…

Encourages a movement back to providing more stories in the daily lives of children. Suggests that many classifications of story should exist within the curricula of schools and, therefore, in the hearts and minds of children, in the culture, and in the future. Presents the author's categories of stories: the gifts; teacher tales; and affirmation…

Describes how the purpose of the National Literacy Strategy (NLS) is to provide "a steady and consistent strategy" for raising standards in literacy over a 5- to 10-year period. Discusses reading and writing in the Literacy Hour and evaluation of the strategy. Notes that the NLS in England has been successful to a point. (SG)

Considers how the RTEACHER electronic mailing list thrust professional discussions of literacy education into an electronic dimension with global connections and instantaneous exchanges. Notes that the RTEACHER listserv gave reading teachers an electronic platform for voicing their perspectives on political maneuvers that aimed the National…

Discusses how to motivate teachers to read. Proposes that teachers who exhibit the characteristics of engaged readers will help create students who exhibit the same characteristics. Suggests that in order to engage teachers in reading, teachers' social interaction with books and teachers' access to books should increase; existing practices should…

Considers how being a multicultural teacher demands facing a lengthy and complex set of issues, beginning with the understanding that good multicultural teaching has the bottom-line goal of helping every child be successful in the classroom. Presents 10 recommendations for reaching that goal. (SG)