Promises, Progress and Possibilities: Perspectives of Literacy Education

Papers in this collection focus on diverse issues in literacy ranging from motivation to wordless books to professional development schools. Papers in the collection, and their authors, are as follows: "The New Literacy and Reading Workshop: How Comfortable Is Too Comfortable?" (Jeanne Henry); "Fostering Reading Motivation: Insights from Theory and Research" (Linda B. Gambrell and Rose Marie Codling); "Standards for the English Language Arts: Stylish but Stillborn" (Thomas Cloer, Jr.); "Skill Standards: Establishing a Framework for Basic Skills" (Eunice N. Askov); "Balanced Reading Programs: Exploring Their Essentials" (Mona W. Matthews; Jerry L. Johns; Victoria J. Risko; Marian Tonjes); "Wordless Books: Promise and Possibilities, A Genre Comes of Age" (Sarah Dowhower); "Reading Instruction in the Middle School Mathematics Classroom" (Chet H. Laine; Terry L. Bullock; Bob Drake); "The Relationship of Standardized Reading Scores to Children's Self-Perception as Readers" (Thomas Cloer, Jr. and Shana Y. Ross); "Perspectives on Schema and Reading Comprehension: Content or Formal Schema? What Promises?" (Samuel S. Myers); "The Making of a Researcher: A Self-Study of a Mentoring Relationship" (Josephine Peyton Young and Donna E. Alvermann); "Storytelling to Promote Emergent Literacy: Prospective Teachers' Storytelling Experiences and Expectations" (Reed Motley and Richard Telfer); "Reflecting Retelling: Perceptions of Preservice Teachers and Implications for Instruction" (Marie F. Doan Holbein and Jane Brady Matanzo); "Seeking Readers: Integrating Gay and Lesbian Texts into a Developmental Reading and Writing Course" (Michaeline Lane); "Empowering Teachers through a Professional Development School and Classroom Action Research" (Joyce C. Fine); "The Perils and Promises of One School/College Partnership" (Marilyn G. Eanet); "A Literacy-Focused Professional Development Academy" (Shannon W. Kossack and Joyce C. Fine); "Teacher Training and the Effects of Past Experience on Preservice Teacher's Concerns for the Role of the Internet in Planning and Instruction" (Anne L. Mallery and Jane F. Rudden); "World Wide Web: Proposals and Pilots for Connecting Schools to Authentic Commerce in Literature, Ideas, Humanitarianism, and the Free Market" (Anthony V. Manzo; Amy Barnhill; Andrew Lang; Ula C. Manzo); "The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age" (Wayne Otto; Rick Erickson; Ken Smith); and "Reaction to 'The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age'" (Eunice N. Askov). (NKA)