English Update February 20, 2007

Letters. Never write any letter that is longer than one page. Nobody in the world wants to read a letter from you that is longer than one page, not even your mother. D Greenburg. Wrt (June 04), 32.

Spelling and visualization. Primary grade child: “When I see a word in a book, my brain takes a picture of it and when I need to write it, I know how to spell it.” KL Dahl, et al. RT (Dec. 03/Jan. 04), 319.

Interviews. Students interview older relatives about their memories of historical events. M Faust. JAAL (Apr. 04), 572.

Previewing. Show students how to skim over nonfiction books to find ones that appeal to them. D Gallo. EJ (Nov. 03), 91-94.

What do children learn from the barrage of tests they are now subjected to? “The lessons my kids walk away with include learning that there’s only one right answer; that the right answer is never our own idea but always involves figuring out what someone else was thinking; that often someone is tricking us into choosing the wrong. answer.” D Santman. LA (Jan. 02, 211.

Reading. Standardized reading tests do not stimulate pleasure in reading. EM Bularzik. EJ (May 04), 102-104.

Writing. “...and the purpose of this introduction is to make clear to the reader from the start the direction taken by the book as a whole and the way in which the individual chapters are related to its ultimate object.” Lorenz, On Aggression.

Reading textbooks. “Go beyond the facts in a textbook to explore the facts and their implications in depth.” JJ Williams. CE (Nov. 03), 204-205.

Responding to reading. After reading a book or an article, students list facts, raise questions suggested by these facts, requiring answers from other sources. CA Allen and L Swistak. LA (Jan. 04), 229.

Effective inservice. Participants are involved from the beginning planning; on-going rather than one-shot sessions; rely upon local personnel for design and conduct of inservice; aimed at changing teacher behavior rather than student performance. RTE (Oct.94), 261.

Previewing. Teacher distributes sentences from text they are about to read. From the single sentences, students in writing try to predict what will happen in the text. RH Yopp & HK Yopp. RT (Nov. 03), 284.

Reading instruction for adolescents. “The Adolescent Literacy Position Statement of the International Reading Association (1999) asserted that ‘Adolescents deserve instruction that will build both the ability and the desire to read from increasingly complex texts.’” [As opposed to the readability people’s dumbing down the text to enable problem readers to succeed in reading content area assignments.] JL Knickerbocker & J Rycik. JAAL (Nov. 02), 196.

Reading. Make a chart and display it in the classroom telling students what to do before they read, while they read and after they read. R Fryer. EJ (May 04), 20-21.

Wrt = The Writer. RT = Reading Teacher. JAAL = Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy. EJ = English Journal. LA = Language Arts. CE = College English. RTE = Research in the Teaching of English.