Rethinking Language Arts

Nina Zaragoza is currently an English Language Teacher/ Consultant at The American Home in Vladimir, Russia.

• Letter 1: Introduction Letter 2: The Reflective Educator: Rethinking the Teacher as Practitioner Letter 3: Teaching within Community: Rethinking Blocked Schedules Letter 4: Broadening Our Definitions: Rethinking What We Say About Our Children and Their Learning Letter 5: Children as Authors in a Writers' Workshop: Rethinking My Summer Vacation Letter 6: Teaching as Human Community: Rethinking the Bluebirds, Robins and Buzzards Letter 7: Allowing Students to Think: Rethinking Teaching Students What to Think Letter 8: Playwrights in Action: Rethinking Poetry and Drama in the Classroom Letter 9: Authentic Evaluation: Rethinking the Friday Spelling Tests Letter 10: The Nature of Instruction: Rethinking Objectives, Procedures, and Evaluation Letter 11: Classroom Interactions: Rethinking Classroom Management Letter 12: But Where's Your Desk? Rethinking Classroom Design Letter 13: For Now Farewell: Rethinking Getting the Children Ready for Next Year Letter 14: P.S.: Some Last Thoughts

"[Zaragoza's] views have received more than customary acceptance in the past by education professors who assign required reading material in their courses on language arts instruction in elementary schools." -- Teacher's College Record"Interweaving stories, dialogues, plays, poetry, lesson plans, course designs, and students' journals with reflections on philosophical, pedagogical, political and psychological questions arising in teaching, Nina Zaragoza unfolds before our eyes the drama of educating our young, with all its challenges and paradoxes and joy and rewards. In the spirit of Paulo Freire and in her aspiration to "Be the change you want to see," the author of Rethinking Language Arts] compels us to ponder what itis to be a teacher and helps us learn how to be a goodone." -- Xin Liu Gale, Author of Teachers, Discourses,and Authority in the Postmodern Composition Classroom