Describes a plan for improving students' writing skills which was developed in a school for kindergarten through third grade students, and which incorporated parent participation and "publication" of student writing. (JC)

Notes the problem that comprehension questions that claim to assess students' skills in finding main ideas may in fact be measuring their knowledge of identifying the topic of a passage. (JC)

Notes that poor readers often equate reading difficulty with failure and exhibit stress reactions, and suggests that teachers take these feelings into account to help with remediation. (JC)

Examines the practice of assigning writing topics to students versus allowing them to choose their own topic, and suggests a way to strike a balance. (JC)

Suggests that picture nouns are useful in teaching reading, writing, oral vocabulary, and thinking skills to all children, including handicapped students and those who speak another language. (JC)

Offers classroom teachers a way to use listening activities to improve students' comprehension, a procedure that has worked well with a group of children in grades K-3. (JC)

Notes that with the growing diversity in ethnic backgrounds, school librarians are challenged to find materials to meet children's cultural needs. (JC)

Notes the problem in reading instruction of teaching children both one-to-one representational meaning of words and world-meaning of words, a distinction that can alter their perception of truth as found in written works. (JC)

Offers some suggestions for using a microcomputer in class when only one work station is available. (JC)

Suggests ways a teacher who is interested in performing Piagetian testing might persuade a principal of the validity of the tests, and offers insight into the connection between cognitive development and reading achievement. (JC)

Provides a rationale for content area writing, and suggests ways it can be used for social studies instruction. (JC)

Examines the Decoding Skills Test (DST), a criterion referenced, diagnostic instrument designed to identify deficiencies in word decoding. (JC)

Reviews the content of parents' notes to teachers covering a variety of subjects. (FL)

Lists benefits of children's magazines as educational resources, discusses their educational implications, and offers specific activities involving the use of such periodicals. Provides a list of children's magazines available around the world. (FL)

Concludes that poor readers' comprehension of stories was improved by instruction that focused on causal structure, but that a few learners still struggling with basic decoding were too preoccupied to attend to story structure. (FL)