This book appears at a time when the crisis rhetoric about schools, teaching, and learning to read is extremely high. There is a rising call within the profession for a balanced perspective on reading. Balancing Principles for Teaching Elementary Reading aspires to help set the agenda for improving the quality of literacy instruction in the United States--by recentering the debate from "What's better, 'whole language' or 'phonics'?" to "What can we do in reading instruction to prepare all children for the literacy demands of the next century?" The authors, all members of the professional community of reading educators, work on a daily basis with teachers in classrooms, prospective teachers, clinicians, and tutors. Their goal for this book is to represent what they have learned about effective teaching and learning as members of this community. It is written with four purposes in mind: * to offer a principled conception of reading and learning to read that is considerate of both the personal dimensions of literacy acquisition as well as the changes that are taking place in society, * to summarize key findings from the research that relate specifically to effective teaching practices, * to describe current practices in reading instruction with specific comparisons to the principles of effective practice that are identified, and * to suggest an action agenda that is school-based and designed to promote positive changes in the quality of instruction. This text offers a perspective for teaching that provokes members of the reading education community to think about their underlying beliefs about teaching and their shared commitment to making schools more effective for the students they serve. It is envisioned as a resource to be used in building a community of learners--to be read with professional colleagues in a course of study, in a teacher-researcher book club, or in some type of in-service setting. Readers are encouraged to debate the ideas presented, to challenge the authors' conceptions with their own reality, to make sense within a community about what action is desirable. Some specific suggestions and strategies are provided as springboards for further exploration and action.

Providing detailed information about the contexts, processes, and products of publishing, this book is divided into three major sections: writing for journals and other periodicals, writing for children and other adolescents, and writing instructional materials. Chapters in the book are: "Publishing Requirements for Research-Oriented Journals" (S. Jay Samuels); "Guarding against the False and Fashionable in Research Journals" (Edward J. Kameenui); "Reading with a Writer's Eye: Publishing in Practitioner Journals" (Julie M. Jensen); "Preparing and Submitting Articles for Practitioner Journals" (James F. Baumann); "Publishing in Newsletters and Newspapers" (John Micklos, Jr.); "Writing Reviews of Professional and Instructional Materials" (Carol J. Hopkins); "Where Bushes Are Bears: Writing for Children" (Myra Cohn Livingston); "How to Write Books for Children and Young Adults" (Ginny Moore Kruse); "Developing Reading Programs: The Author's Role" (John J. Pikulski); "Publishing Reading and Language Arts Programs" (Cynthia J. Orrell); "Writing Supplemental Materials in Reading and Language Arts" (Dale D. Johnson); "Publishing Computer Software" (Marguerite C. Radencich); "Publishing College and Professional Texts" (Hiram G. Howard and Susanne F. Canavan); and "Writing Professional Books; or, The Second Stone" (Wayne Otto). (RS)

Intended to help classroom teachers, curriculum developers, and researchers, this book provides current information on theoretical and instructional aspects of main idea comprehension. Titles and authors are as follows: "The Confused World of Main Idea" (James W. Cunningham and David W. Moore); "The Comprehension of Important Information in Written Prose" (Peter N. Winograd and Connie A. Bridge); "What Do Expert Readers Do When the Main Idea Is Not Explicit?" (Peter P. Afflerbach and Peter H. Johnston); "Research and Instructional Development on Main Idea Skills" (Joanna P. Williams); "Actively Teaching Main Idea Skills" (Mark W. Aulls); "The Direct Instruction of Main Idea Comprehension Ability" (James F. Baumann); "Teaching Students Main Idea Comprehension: Alternatives to Repeated Exposures" (Victoria Chou Hare and Adelaide Bates Bingham); "Teaching Middle Grade Students to Summarize Content Textbook Material" (Barbara M. Taylor); "Graphic Organizers: Cuing Devices for Comprehending and Remembering Main Ideas" (Donna E. Alvermann); "Getting the Main Idea of the Main Idea: A Writing/Reading Process" (James Flood and Diane Lapp); and "Main Idea Instruction for Low Performers: A Direct Instruction Analysis" (Edward J. Kameenui). (EL)

A program to teach social studies with activities for "hands-on" experiences. Uses a combination of history, geography, writing, and literature to encourage multicultural perspectives, and to obtain reading, thinking and cooperative learning skills.