Presents questions and concerns of a teacher who served as a scoring assessor for the Early Adolescence/English Language Arts field test of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, run by the Educational Testing Service. (SR)

Presents the experiences, questions, and concerns of a teacher who served as a scoring assessor, evaluating the planning and teaching exercises submitted by teachers in the field test for National Board Certification in the Early Adolescence/English Language Arts Assessment. (SR)

Draws analogies between the character Lydgate in George Eliott's "Middlemarch" and the medical profession on the one hand, and the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and the teaching profession on the other hand. (SR)

Argues that in its testing procedures, announcements of results, and methods of review, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards is becoming a testing company when it should be becoming a professional certification agency. Discusses standards-based scoring, local certification versus national certification, individual applications…

Looks at how standards in some form predominate the current landscape of education. Argues that standards pose little threat to teacher autonomy, but that teachers should find what is useful in the standards movement and merge that into what works in the classroom. Argues that educators must join the greater debate about education. (SR)

Describes the author's experience when the director and teacher-trainers of a writing program persuaded him that the oral interpretation he wished them to perform was too troubling and explosive to use. Outlines his questions and anguish about the incident, and the urgency of dealing with the dilemmas of multiculturalism, racial intolerance, and…

Argues that what really matters in vocabulary development is that students come to love words, know that words have power, and develop for themselves a range of language choices. Argues that this can be brought about in classrooms with effective practice for vocabulary instruction: extensive reading, meaningful word study, and diverse…

Muses on the power of words and how they shape people's lives. Relates stories from the author's life illustrating this, and relates the author's (a writer of novels for children and young adults) struggles and rewards as she works with words. (SR)

Describes how the author realized that his prepubescent Superboy hero is not brave and represents what can never be. Describes how he came to believe that true heroes are defined by how they respond to what they do "wrong." Notes how this affects the author's writing and the heroes he creates in his novels. (SR)

Records the musings of a teacher preparing to teach a course on reading and writing in the content area to preservice secondary teachers. Notes that the teacher will trust her students to come with stories, questions, passion, and curiosity, and trust them to discover the power of literacy and to find its role in their future classrooms over time.…

Describes the shifts in the author's literacy in the three years she has been a mother. Discusses the two books she has had time to read for pleasure, as well as the books she has written and edited (in her role as a teacher educator). Shares how this reflects the fragmented, challenging, exhilarating existence of motherhood. (SR)

Describes the author's odyssey, first of shock and grief at the death of one daughter and the serious injury of another; then of slow rebuilding, healing, and inspiration to others though the publication of her deceased daughter's writings; and finally of discovery as the author pursues her dream of writing and illustrating a child's picture book.…

Describes how the author, for whom writing is otherwise a chore, shares a journal with her daughter, and another with her mother, in which both writers have an opportunity to tell their stories, communicate with each other, and express their thoughts and feelings. (SR)

Describes how the experience of losing a heavily annotated and much-treasured address book, later returned through an anonymous act of kindness, has inspired the writer to work with students to weave a tapestry of caring deeds that will support future acts of outreach, civility, and deliberate citizenship. (SR)

Relates how, throughout the author's life from early childhood well into adulthood, literacy has been a powerful adventure helping her to survive and thrive. Notes that she teaches reading and writing to her students to share these gifts of language with them. (SR)