Information on current trends and issues informally discussed and then delineated by the directors of six National Council of Teachers of English commissions, is presented in this 15th annual report. The commissions and their directors are: (1) Commission on Composition (Christine Kline); (2) Commission on Curriculum (Kathleen Rowlands); (3)…

For several years, one educator has taught Charles Dickens's "Great Expectations" to eighth and ninth graders. She recently discovered a woman writer of the 18th century whose novel could be taught using the same format used to teach Dickens's novel. Fanny Burney's "Evelina" is an exceptional book, effective not only for teaching the epistolary…

A significant number of Hispanic children's books and juvenile short stories and novels produced in the last two decades reveal the social and cultural elements that affect the lives, traditions, and beliefs of young adults from Spanish-speaking countries. These books contain sociocultural realism, yet with a touch of the innocence and freshness…

This publication contains journal essays and book chapters (from publications of the National Council of Teachers of English) concerning trends and issues in postsecondary English studies. The publication's first section, "Race/Class/Gender Positions," contains the following articles: (1) "On the Rhetoric and Precedents of…

Using the example of Taking a Stand in Cyberspace, the authors articulate issues confronting school, community, and higher education groups as they create online discussions geared to deepen the level of student discourse about literature. Through a collaboration between the Vermont Center for the Book, the WEB Project, and six Vermont schools,…

College courses which use writing across the curriculum (WAC) principles encourage students to write about assigned readings and to respond to each other's writings, resulting in better learning of course concepts and the experience of participating in a discipline's ongoing conversation. Guidelines for setting up peer response groups in both…

Describes teaching strategies for students' initial exposure to nonfiction materials to help students' comprehension of new materials of varying opinions, and integration of new knowledge. Provides specific questions to elicit student understanding and utilization of new content, author, organization, biography, style, publishing conventions,…

Describes the responses of white, affluent, ethnically-encapsulated first graders to four books that featured African-Americans as the central characters. Finds that students' responses showed a sensitivity for the feelings and actions of people they seldom interact with or even think about. Notes that the students frequently addressed issues of…

Discusses how New York librarians and early childhood educators work together to get preschool children off to the right start in language and literacy. Describes how programs through libraries and involving parents, teachers and librarians can give children a better chance to grow up literate and love books. (MG)

Writers and books viewed as having particular value in planning for gifted education in the year 2000 are identified, including works on identifying the gifted, accelerated early development, behavioral and learning characteristics, aesthetics, core gifted curriculum, literature studies, ethics, philosophy, and mathematical and scientific…

This article argues that study of literature in the medical curriculum develops physician skills in observation and interpretation, clinical imagination, and self-expression and self-knowledge; enriches moral education; fosters tolerance for uncertainty; and promotes empathy for patients. Appropriate courses for inclusion of and classroom…

Examines the role of storytelling as a medium for promoting language development and cognitive growth in a preschool setting. Gives a rationale for including interactive storytelling in language curriculum and suggestions for its effective use. Underlines that story presentation helps children experience the world as a whole, makes lessons…

Symbiotic relationships exist between language, culture, and poetry. Successful classroom teaching acknowledges these relationships. Teaching poetry to children up to age 12 may be improved by addressing these relationships in initial teacher education. A research project involving teachers, student teachers, and children has explored these…

Presents a study of the effect of differences in reading strategies on the construction of meaning from novel length text. Discusses relevant psychological theory. Hypothesizes effects of differing strategies in reading the book "Animal Farm." Concludes that teacher-directed reading provides a depth of meaning not found when students…

Describes how a bilingual teacher and a professor collaborated in a bilingual classroom to create culturally relevant opportunities for learning. Examines the work of four fourth-grade students of different backgrounds to show what this culturally relevant learning looked like. Discusses sources of knowledge generation: families, multicultural…