Describes a strategy that employs inverse tactics in teaching students to summarize stories using capsualization guides (brief, general summaries of stories with very few specifics). (MM)

Presents several activities for helping kindergarten and first grade students develop an understanding of the main idea concept. (MM)

Describes how sharing students' writing in small groups is a good alternative to sharing writing with the whole class. Provides "Author's Circle" guidelines to clarify group procedures. (MM)

Describes how a "radio" presentation of a basal play or favorite story fosters oral reading in reluctant readers. (MM)

Relates how student writers learn from one another when they share their writing with classmates in the "Author's Chair." (MM)

Describes a poetry-writing formula that guarantees successful results for writing poems at the elementary level. (MM)

Demonstrates the complex social nature of literacy by examining research on the influence of social interactions on reading and writing development. Illustrates these findings with examples from the environment and activities of a kindergarten classroom. (MM)

Discusses the advantages of dialogue journal writing in elementary education. Describes the organization of dialogue journal writing in a sixth grade classroom, noting that dialogue journals provide an ideal tool of empowerment for both students and teachers, and enable teachers to integrate reading and writing in a whole language approach. (MM)

Examines the nature of power over literacy (such as knowledge of print conventions, and experiences of participation in reading and writing activities) which children often possess when they begin school. Discusses ways in which teachers sometimes interfere with this power and how they can, instead, enhance it. (MM)

Discusses the Young Authors Program, a program sponsored by the Greater Boston Reading Council, which encourages teachers to help students create original illustrated bound books. (MM)

Asserts that certain traits and factors, such as persistence through failure and a tolerance for frustration, help children overcome life's problems. Analyzes 30 award-winning children's books from 1928 to 1987 and 14 "children's favorites" to determine if these books contain characters and plots that display resiliency. (MM)

Examines how visual literacy (the ability to interpret the visual images of advertisements, illustrations, television, and other visual media) can promote creative and analytic thinking. Provides several instructional strategies to teach visual literacy through book illustrations. Notes that visual literacy is essential in a world increasingly…

Presents five individual narratives which describe the internal struggles experienced by teachers in resolving the empowerment issue, while learning to support and trust their students' learning. (MM)

Describes how one school district integrated the use of word processing technology with its developmental writing program. Notes that findings of the pilot program indicated that students using word processors significantly improved the quality of their writing compared with students not using word processors. (MM)

Presents an interactive instructional model of reading instruction, in which teachers have a central role in determining the goals, materials, and methods of instruction. Suggests that this approach would improve students' reading performance. (MM)