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To address anti-immigration sentiments revealed by preservice educators, the authors conducted a workshop using a "critical-aesthetic praxis." The purpose of the workshop was to create a praxis (Freire, 1970;1998) of critical aesthetics (Carey, 1998) in which preservice teachers engaged in a series of aesthetically grounded experiences aimed at revealing and disorienting their previously conceived notions about immigration. The workshop lay the groundwork for a re-orientation of understanding based on perspectives of the "the Other" and builds a transformative curriculum in teacher education programs. Such practices must become more integral facets of teacher preparation programs to promote an anti-racist pedagogy.

Enlisting pre-service teachers to engage in critical thought about diversity, equity, democracy, and power relationships is a challenging responsibility. The authors' work at a large urban community's metropolitan university in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States is designed to help pre-service teachers understand these concepts at a deeper level, thereby initiating (re)conceptualizations of the complex dimensions of multicultural education. The authors encourage beginning educators to rethink their interpretation of words and images used to construct their thinking about these issues. This essay explores a series of workshops that combined children's literature and drama to help pre-service teachers understand the parts they play in inequality, oppression, and racism and to recognize their role in larger societal constructs. The authors suggest, supporting Freire's notion that "reading the word = reading the world," that reinforcing children's literature with Boal's "Theater of the Oppressed" techniques helps transform pedagogy in ways that empower both students and teachers. (Contains 1 figure.)

This article reports research that examines the impact of fidelity to a scripted program in two third-grade classrooms. The data was drawn from a study conducted in an elementary school functioning under pressure from state and district policy to increase student standardized reading test scores. Thematic analysis was used to analyze observation data and document analysis was used to determine the teachers' adherence to the mandated program. It was found that fidelity to the program resulted in what the program recommended--presentation of information, round-robin oral reading of text passages, and completion of comprehension tasks--but questions claims made by supporters of such instruction. Findings point to the need for reconsideration of mandating fidelity to scripted programs that spend little time developing reading comprehension strategies. (Contains 2 tables.)

Schools across the nation are responding to reading assessment mandates by turning to DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills), a program endorsed by the Federal Reading First Grant Office, to assess fluency on a range of reading-related tasks. DIBELS makes strong claims regarding its usefulness in documenting reading progress and predicting success on standardized tests and is frequently used to group and level students for intervention and instruction. This article addresses the effectiveness of using DIBELS to assess second-grade readers and presents an analysis of the relationship between DIBELS Oral Reading Fluency (DORF) and authentic reading. Our data show no connection between DORF and students' oral reading fluency and comprehension of authentic literature and questions the usefulness of DIBELS. (Contains 1 table and 1 footnote.)

Graduate studies and particularly doctoral work are often described as extremely challenging and demanding. Graduate students experience lofty academic demands, high levels of stress and anxiety and conflicts between various responsibilities. Through the self-examination of the experience of four doctoral students and a professor, this paper analyzes common challenges of graduate studies and presents the development and function of peer mentoring and peer support group aiming to guide the students and their mentor through the perilous passage of doctoral work. The student-led group we established served as a multi-functional mechanism offering members support in participating in the academic community by helping them acquire the discourse and social skills necessary for joining the grant conversations of their discipline. Also, the members were supported in teaching undergraduate courses, in dealing with the practical aspects of being graduate students, and in improving the quality and the genre range of their writing. Finally, the group provided members with essential emotional support. (Contains 2 notes.)

The different ways of creating space for teaching writing and for test preparation as well the tension a teacher undergoes of implementing a writing workshop approach within a school context focused on high-test scores are described. The findings suggest maintaining teacher autonomy and surviving the high demands imposed upon teachers.

Exciting stories about African Americans in recently published historical fiction books for children concern Pea Island Life-Station, a private school for African American girls, a biracial slave, a black woman who homesteads for land in 1889, and an orphan who travels on his own to Flint, Michigan, during the Depression. Much of this history never appeared in the white history books that most teachers and future teachers read when they were in school. Today children can read stories about the history of African Americans and receive a more balanced view of America's past. In this article, the authors present books featuring African American history. Most of the books cited in this article have child protagonists because children are interested in reading stories about other children and often build connections between their own lives and the lives of storybook characters. Many of the books are by African American writers, some of whom combined personal family history with their research to produce culturally conscious books about little-known stories of American history.

The three books reviewed provide alternative model of professional development that take into account the multifaceted and long-term nature of becoming and being an expert teacher. The three books include, 'Pathways: Charting a Course for Professional Learning', The Literacy Coach's Handbook: A Guide to Research-Based Practice and 'An Island of English: Teaching ESL in Chinatown'.

This article explores the complexities of conducting an arts-infused literacy program involving predominantly Caucasian upper middle class preservice educators and children from a racially diverse, low socioeconomic urban neighborhood. The program focused on children using arts and literacy to depict beauty in themselves and their community. We address how preservice teachers transformed their assumptions about working in low income culturally diverse settings, and seeing beauty where previously they only saw deficit and "difference" as problems to be "fixed." We suggest educators can engage in arts-infused activities as acts of critical pedagogy bringing children's voices and life worlds to the foreground and change negative assumptions into "beautiful" experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]