Karyn Wellhousen Tunks

Embracing William, Oliver Button, and Tough Boris: Learning Acceptance from Characters in Children's Literature

M ajor shifts in society’s attitudes eventually have an impact on families, schools, and curriculum. Without a doubt, one of the most reverberating social changes of the 20th century was the women’s liberation movement. From tumultuous protests broadcast on the evening news to quiet revolts within marriages, a change in attitudes toward women and the kinds of work they do made its way into U.S. society, including the schools. As new attitudes about women and their roles in society took hold, changes were made in the way in which females of all ages were represented in instructional materials, such as basal readers, curriculum materials, and tradebooks. The premise behind these changes was that young girls who see females in nontraditional pursuits will view these activities and careers as more attainable, and therefore will feel confident in their ability to realize these goals for themselves. As a result, information and checklists for examining educational materials for bias became widely available. Curricula designed to challenge stereotypes and bias against women became popular. And bibliographies of children’s literature that depict females in nontraditional pursuits became prevalent. The pressure placed on publishers of basal readers, textbooks, and children’s literature significantly improved the portrayal of females in instructional materials. Today, women and girls are represented as successful in careers and interests that take place outside of a domestic setting. In fact, to the modern sensibility, the illustrations in basal readers published before the women’s movement and the reform of instructional materials appear antiquated and even amusing. Although we acknowledge that much work remains to be done to overcome ongoing subtle gender inequities, which negatively affect females in classrooms every day, reforms in regard to reducing depictions of women in domestic roles and increasing the portrayal of women in nontraditional pursuits and careers have been successful. Could it be that in the

Exploring Journals as a Genre for Making Reading-Writing Connections

wn as intertextudity (Cairney, 1990, 1992; Harris, , & Winser, 2002), inspires literacy learners to create their own texts through journaling. As students become familiar with various purposes for journaling by exploring literature written in this genre, they will incorporate the ideas, structure, and form into their own writing. They will make meaningful readingwriting connections between the stories they hear and read and the journal entries they write.

Communication: Creative Ideas for Gathering and Sharing Information

As a result of an increased emphasis on literacy learning, teachers are forced into making difficult choices about how to allocate and balance time for other content areas. As a result, science is often neglected as part of the daily curriculum. If this trend continues, the result will be a generation of learners lacking the ability to perform basic science processes. This article recommends that teachers integrate science learning into other areas of the curriculum, specifically literacy. Six creative ideas are provided as a springboard for teachers to implement and then devise their own innovative ways of communicating scientific findings.