Issue: August 2010

Sandy Kaser, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona In my university classes, I sometimes use a strategy called “text rendering,” in which we read aloud a passage from a text or article that we found to be particularly meaningful. Although it is all right to discuss the passages, I personally prefer simply to hear the words [...]

Sandy Kaser, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona Dear Mr. Francisco Jimenez, I’ve read all of your books and they are all so great! It made me disappointed how some of the people treated you and your family. Like when your girlfriend took you home to meet her parents and they were angry because you were [...]

Sandy Kaser, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona Gordon Wells makes a case for spontaneous dialogue and its relationship to community and to society in the March, 2009 issue of Language Arts,. He states that “the beliefs, values, and knowledge that are attributed to society remain abstract and disembodied until they are brought to bear in [...]

Sandy Kaser, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona Many teachers look for ways to make books meaningful to students. Sometimes we go about this in a deliberate way. Perhaps we have a unit of study coming up and so we look for books that offer different perspectives on this particular topic, or we have “umbrella” themes [...]