Vol. 20, No. 2, 1998
Book Review: John Dewey and the Challenge of Classroom Practice, by Fishman & McCarthy
By Dixie Dellinger
Dellinger is moved by classroom teacher Steve Fishman's efforts to apply the teachings and understanding of John Dewey to his life and his classroom....
Creating Civility: Dialogue Journals in Special Ed Classes
By Elizabeth Anderson
Anderson challenges the view that students in a special education setting need language experiences broken down into subcomponents that deny authentic learning....
By Michael Jackson, Linda McHenry
An African American college student writes of the difficulty of juggling "Ghetto Ease" and standard English, while looking forward to the time when "our language will be accepted as civilized....
In the Midst of Silence
By Kimberly Sloan
Working as a volunteer in a youth correctional facility, Sloan details her struggle to develop a curriculum that would allow her students "to find an overlap between school and their world....
My Perspective: A Response to "Syntax at an Early Age"
By Melanie Sperling
In responding to the author of "Syntax at an Early Age," Sperling, a professor of language and literacy, calls on research to question some of the author's assumptions about learning to write....
Scribe to the Prophet
By Kim Stafford
As a writer, says Stafford, "it is not my work so much to invent as to record the stories of the world," making use of "the voice of anyone I overhear" and being the witness of "anything I see....
Syntax at an Early Age: A Mother Challenges the Experts
By Natalie Kramer
A parent and tutor to her son, Kramer makes the case for systematic teaching and learning of sentence structures in the primary grades, a set of skills she believes get scant attention in American schools....
The Parallel Universes of Theory and Practice: One Teacher's Journey
By Beverly Paesano
Writing Projects and School Reform: A Local Perspective
By Marcie Wolfe
Wolfe explains how the New York City Writing Project has increasingly worked toward a vision that allows the site to help change and restructure schools while also helping teachers improve their practice....