Best Selling Books by Jane Wagner

This side-splitting yet dramatic tour-de-force features a dazzling parade of characters immediately familiar to the coast-to-coast Wagner/Tomlin fans. Enhanced with remarkable onstage photographs of Tomlin. 78 halftones. (Poetry/Plays)

To the guys on the block, J.T. is the kid who stole the radio out of the red convertible before they could get to it. His neighbor, Mrs. Morris, declares him a first-class nuisance. His mother is bewildered -- "He''s just gone bad, that''s all.... Stealin'' and lyin'' and I don''t know what all." But all the sensitivity, responsibility, and care of which ten-year-old J.T. Gamble is capable emerges when he finds an old, one-eyed, badly hurt alley cat. J.T. takes on a new dimension as he lavishes all the love he is unable to express to people around him on the battered cat he has found in the junk-filled empty lot.

Presents various challenging situations English teachers will most likely face, and provides questions to consider and thoughts on each issue. Covers such areas as lessons that flop, the paper load, curriculum, second-language learners, abused students, and attacks on the teacher''s competence.

Easy-to-use diagrams on how: to laminate activity cards and games, simple lettering, preserving throw-away materials, bookbinding, new uses for the overhead and opaque projectors, makeing slides, filmstrips, tapes and films.

This is the fourth edition of James Moffett''s seminal text, first published in 1968, which set forth the rationale and practices for the kind of individualized, interactive, integrative language learning environment that only today is coming into its own. It proposed whole language, collaborative learning, active learning, writing workshops, the process approach, student empowerment, portfolio assessment, and the substitution of children''s literature for basal readers many years before these cornerstones of enlightened English language arts teaching became fashionable. The book is the centerpiece of life work devoted to curricular innovation and constitutes a truly original approach to the nature of discourse. It is cross-referenced to an equally original collection of anthologies that illustrate with both professional and student writing the reading, writing, talking, dramatizing repertories it stakes out--and to Moffett''s other works that build on and extend this one. From the second edition on, the book has profited from the input of Betty Jane Wagner, a master teacher of teachers. Student-centered Language Art, K-12 is arguably the most comprehensive, practically detailed, and original textbook/resource book on English education. It covers theory and practice, elementary and secondary, drama, oral-language activities, and initial literacy as well as general reading and writing. Furthermore, verbal learning is placed in a social context and in the context of nonverbal media and arts that compete with and complement language. The authors have made this edition more compact by shifting some material to a new edition of Active Voice and by abridging matters that no longer need to bedealt with at length because the profession is catching up with the book. They have recast some matters to tie in with current vocabulary and understanding, and some practices have been updated to utilize current technology. In this fourth edition, the book is shorter in length but broader in perspective as it continues to break new ground to integrate language arts with other learning.

We''re confident that this new edition of Betty Jane Wagner''s seminal work will be welcomed by drama educators throughout the English-speaking world. Heathcote''s work has been profoundly influential in that world. Until the publication in 1976 of Dorothy Heathcote: Drama as a Learning Medium, however, Heathcote''s techniques - the pedagogy of drama - lacked full explanation. Wagner''s book gives us just that: a close-up detailing of this gifted, dynamic teacher in a variety of classroom settings, along with analyses of Heathcote''s remarkable improvisations with young people. Indeed, much of Betty Jane Wagner''s book can fairly be described as drama within a drama. It''s an engrossing work, for we listen and watch as Heathcote elicits drama of their own making from students across grade levels and disciplines. Wagner''s goal is to share with teachers how they, using Heathcote''s methods, can generate significant learning experiences.

A collection of the wit and wisdom of six-year-old Edith Ann (as created by Lily Tomlin) offers her humorous observations on modern life, childhood, grown-ups, and other important topics. Reprint.

Includes exercises that review the basics of grammar and practice proofreading, report writing, sentence structure and word usage.

Covers curriculum and methods of language arts and reading for both elementary and secondary school as well as teaching English in basic college courses.

"Does classroom drama actually teach anything?" In this book, the best studies in both the qualitative and quantitative research paradigms are presented.

Includes exercises that teach the basics of grammar and writing.

Pupil''s workbook containing punctuation exercises.

Encourages creativity and builds confidence by making writing fun! Seventy-two four-part lessons strengthen writing skills by focusing on parts of speech, word usage, sentence structure, punctuation and proofreading. Each level includes a Writer''s Handbook at the end of the book that offers tips. Based on the highly respected McGraw-Hill Companies'' language arts textbooks. Full-color illustrations. Consumable. (Available now)