Language Arts, Vol. 78, No. 3, January 2001

Table of Contents

Issue Theme: Texts, Technology, and Thinking

• Reading and Writing "Hypertextually": Children's Literature, Technology, and Early Writing Instruction

  Dawnene D. Hammerberg

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  Abstract: Explores graphical, hypertextual, interactive elements of children's literature and compares them to the characteristics of writing taught in early elementary school. Finds mismatches between ways children are taught to write and the materials they are reading. Discusses finding places where early elementary writing instruction can be updated to include hypertextual elements, multiple perspectives, and meaning beyond printed words.

  Keywords: Elementary, Literature, Pedagogy, Writing

• Literacies and Masculinities in the Life of a Young Working?Class Boy

  Deborah Hicks

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  Abstract: Offers a narrative history of the life of one young reader, observing him at school and at home in grades K-2. Notes how the social practices and relationships he experienced at his blue-collar home bore upon the task of becoming a reader in school. Discusses increasing difficulties of negotiating between these two different cultural settings and his increasing resistance to school.

  Keywords: Elementary, Diversity, Literacy, Pedagogy, Research, Reading

• Texts, Technology, and Thinking: Lessons from the Great Divide

  Perry D. Klein and David R. Olson

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  Abstract: Examines four different levels of development constituting writing as a technology for thinking. Discusses evolution(what speech affords thinkers), history (how text changed the collective construction of knowledge), ontogeny (how literacy affects the development of mind), and microgenesis(how writing facilitates thinking from moment to moment). Argues electronic technology changes students' learning much less than is generally thought.

  Keywords: Elementary, Middle, Secondary, College, Literacy, Technology, Writing

• Hypermedia Composing: Questions Arising from Writing in Three Dimensions

  Abigail Garthwait

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  Abstract: Observes four sixth graders composing nonfiction projects for an integrated unit on Canadian studies, using hypermedia. Ponders issues raised when students compose in hypermedia including evaluating nontraditional projects, developing a sense of audience, conventions of the medium, use of visuals to convey information, engaged students, and whether educators are acknowledging and addressing the discrepancies between the technological haves and have-nots.

  Keywords: Elementary, Middle, Pedagogy, Research, Technology, Writing

• The Locus of Language in Digital Space

  James Andrew LaSpina

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  Abstract: Considers how textual and digital visual worlds come together to create new ways of thinking about text and the nature of representation. Compares the graphic space of the printed page and the digital space of screen displays. Argues that each of these two mediums supports a distinctive yet vital way of thinking and that neither can be dispensed with.

  Keywords: Elementary, Middle, Research, Standards, Technology

• Focus on Research: Teachers and Technology: Digital Literacy through Professional Development

  Evangeline S. Pianfetti

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  Abstract: Explores the need for digital literacy among teachers and its challenges. Discusses how professional development activities in technology may strengthen digital literacy among K-12 teachers. Offers an illustration of three effective professional development models that have successfully helped teachers integrate technology into the curriculum.

  Keywords: Elementary, Middle, Secondary, College, Literacy, Pedagogy, Research, Technology, Professional Development

• Current Issues: Linking Home and School through Family Visits

  Ellen McIntyre, Diane Kyle, Gayle Moore, Ruth Ann Sweazy, and Stacy Greer

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  Abstract: Describes a research study in which three primary-grade teachers and two researchers visited, interviewed, and planned with the families of their students over three years in order to better support children's literacy development by creating instruction that builds on what they know. Discusses what they learned about families as resources, and about reciprocal relationships. Discusses issues in doing family visits.

  Keywords: Elementary, Assessment, Diversity, Literacy, Pedagogy, Research, School-Community Relation, Standards

• Reading and Writing Essays about Objects of Personal Significance

  Leigh Van Horn

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  Abstract: Early at the beginning of the school year, the author and his adolescent students wrote essays about objects of personal significance. The group learned more about each other, and the writing process, through examining a piece of literature as a model, talking and listening to one another about their personal objects, and reflecting on the process of their own writing.

  Keywords: Middle, Literature, Pedagogy, Writing, Professional Development, Reading

• Talking About Books: Critical Conversations about Identity

  Gloria Kauffman and Kathy G. Short

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  Abstract: Describes some activities from the authors' fourth/fifth-grade classroom exploring "identity." Offers brief descriptions of 26 children's books that invite critical conversations about identity around topics of: making a choice and changing your life; gaining control and overcoming obstacles; judging and being judged; and relationships within families.

  Keywords: Elementary, Middle, Literature, Reading

• Roundtable on Books

  Catherine Dorsey-Gaines with Polly Ashelman, Norma Jackson, and Peter Jackson

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  Abstract: Discusses 11 books that present thought-provoking ideas to help classroom teachers, parents, and administrators understand the world of developing literacy. Addresses a variety of professional books ranging from texts that focus on issues of race, to books that take up emergent literacy, to texts on beginning teaching.

  Keywords: Elementary, Literacy, Pedagogy

• Editors' Pages

  Sharon Murphy and Curt Dudley-Marling

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  Abstract: Abstract for this article is currently not available.

  Keywords: Elementary

• PROFILE: NCTE Poetry Award Recipient: X. J. Kennedy

  Daniel L. Darigan

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  Abstract: Abstract for this article is currently not available.

  Keywords: Elementary

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