This in-depth interview study of the schooling experiences of 120 First Nations, American Indian, and Alaska Native students contributes to understandings of their literacy motivation, highlighting tensions between their insights on literacy learning and literacy practices implicated by the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001. With NCLB in…

Investigates the writing processes of nonstandard dialect, basic writers through the case study of an eleventh grade minority student. Offers teaching methods which utilize the strengths and address the underlying problems of nonstandard dialect students. (MM)

Explores why many secondary students resist writing by examining the extrinsic and intrinsic factors that affected one student's motivation to write. Determines that students' past experiences with writing profoundly affect their willingness to write. Describes ways to preserve and foster young writers' inclinations to write. (MM)

Recounts a college English teacher's experience of reading and rereading Noam Chomsky, building up a greater store of prior knowledge. Argues that Frank Smith provides a theory for the importance of prior knowledge and Chomsky's work provided a personal example with which to interpret and integrate that theory. (RS)

Investigates the writing experience of 40 eleventh graders and examines the social and pedagogical circumstances contributing to their limited concentration and motivation. Finds that emotion disrupts sustained and thoughtful attention to writing. Demonstrates the psychological toll of limited concentration, negative self-view, and limited…

Investigates a gender-related issue raised by a 1990 study of 40 11th-grade writing students. Discusses what problems are posed by and what possible solutions there are to the tendency in young women writers--more pronounced than in their male counterparts--to please the teacher and meet his or her rhetorical expectations at the expense of…

Discusses an in-depth interviewing process designed to encourage teaching assistants and other teachers of writing to reflect on the ways their histories with writing affect the way they teach composition. Finds that this process initiates a forum for continued discussion about the teaching of writing. (RS)

Teachers' stories were used to report the findings of a phenomenological (qualitative interview-based) study of experiences in teaching American Indian children. Avoiding academic discourse closes the gap between the reporting of research findings and their implementation into classroom practice. Contains 18 references. (Author/SAS)

Based on interviews and classroom observation, this book presents the "collected wisdom" of 60 teachers of American Indian students in all parts of the United States, as well as teachers of indigenous students in Australia and Costa Rica. Chapter 1, "Introduction: The Teacher as Learner" presents the authors' backgrounds, the study's emerging…

Discusses results from a study of nearly 60 teachers of American Indian students. Describes four main learning styles based on teachers' responses and the literature: holistic, creative learners; visual learners; oral learners; and learners preferring concrete applications, as opposed to abstractions. Argues against overgeneralizing findings to…

Many American Indian, First Nations, and Alaska Native cultures have prophecies about the "Seventh Generation"--young people who will have a spiritual and cultural awakening and lead the regeneration of the nations and the earth. This book honors the Seventh Generation. It draws on the words of 120 Native youth, interviewed in the United…