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Schools seem to serve certain groups of people over others. Schools become "sorting mechanisms in which select groups of students are favored on the basis of race, class, and gender." Students within the dominant culture gain cultural capital, while students outside the dominant culture are often left without the means to gain entry into the culture of power. Such is the situation for culturally diverse students in the United States. Studies have shown that, in many classrooms in the United States, culturally diverse children's knowledge and the ways of learning they bring from home often conflict with the teaching practices and curricula of school. Because of these clashing ways of teaching and learning between home and school, families of these children often feel alienated from the schools. Teachers must become aware of such inequities but once such an awareness develops, how do teachers begin to break down barriers between home and school? This article addresses this crucial question.

Despite the growing appreciation among professional educators, teachers unions, school districts, and university researchers of the need for effective school-based mentors, many new teachers still report a "sink or swim" experience as they enter the profession. Not surprisingly, about one third of new teachers in the United States leave the profession within the first three years. Rather than seeking a prescriptive method or program for mentoring new teachers, what may prove helpful is a deeper exploration of the social and cultural learning experiences of new teachers. In this article, the author presents the results of a naturalistic study in which 15 experienced teachers and student teachers participated in the Effective Mentoring in English Education (EMEE) project. This project aimed to understand how new teachers learn and how mentor teachers can support their learning during the student teaching semester. Results of the study indicated that it was the school-based mentor who was seen as the main source of "cultural knowledge". However, unlike previous discussions of mentoring and the role of challenge in preservice education, these mentors and student teachers identified specific contextual challenges with which student teachers struggled and for which mentors needed to provide support. These contextual challenges occurred across pairs, but were constructed differently within them. These variations highlight the ways in which the mentor teacher and student teacher pairs both shaped and were shaped by their perceptions of their teaching contexts. Mentors and student teachers seemed to create a socially shared space through which they could negotiate and define the student teachers' participation. In this way, support and challenge were interwoven and intricately connected to the specific mentor teacher and student teacher pairs.

The relationship between attitude and the practice of teaching writing among preservice teachers is an important consideration for a number of reasons. Perhaps most significantly, these students will soon be responsible for teaching writing in schools where superior writing instruction is needed. The need for improving the effectiveness of future writing teachers is underscored by a recent evaluation by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which indicated that only half of the students in grades 4, 8, and 12 in the United States are able to write adequate responses to informative, persuasive, or narrative writing tasks. The NAEP report also reveals that students generally receive little writing instruction. Furthermore, work by Lucas (1993) indicates that writing process is not as well established in the United States as advocates might have hoped. Therefore, it seems that greater efforts should be "given to the professional development of teachers who will be expected to guide students' writing." Certainly in any profession there are "certain sets of attitudes essential to the effective conduct of that profession." Since research clearly demonstrates the important relationship between teachers' attitudes about writing and their performance in the classroom, research that explores where writing attitudes originate and how they influence practice are worthy of attention. In this study, the author asks the following questions: (1) What attitudes did pre-service teachers hold regarding writing and the teaching of writing when they entered their final semester of pre-service professional education?; (2) What were the major influences on these attitudes?; and (3) What was the relationship between the participants' writing attitudes and the teaching process they actually employed during student teaching? (Contains 1 table.)

The article examines the ways in which the National Writing Project, a professional development approach to improve the writing skills of practicing teachers, impacted teachers' self confidence as writers in the U.S. The project attempts to immerse teachers in the role of authors by offering them meaningful and sustained professional development. This initiative aims to equip teachers as competent writers to develop their students' writing. The social nature of learning is important when designing professional development workshops or college courses for in-service teachers.

This article explores the use of the Expository Reading and Writing Curriculum (ERWC) to better meet the needs of students in the U.S. It reflects on the use of the ERWC as the English component of the Early Assessment Program (EAP) of California State University. It discusses the keys to the effectiveness of the curriculum, such as critical thinking and student engagement in writing. In addition, the article identifies the principles involved in the approach, including the integration of interactive reading and writing processes.

This article focuses on evaluating online resources and assessing the importance of critical reading skills in online environments. Electronic resources are said to be the primary source for students. The Internet has become a popular text source for adolescents working on school assignments. It was found that the number of classrooms with Internet connectivity is growing. In the U.S., 99 percent of public schools have Internet access. Teachers need to be aware that continuing advances in technology have broadened the definition of literacy to include the ability to use electronic as well as printed materials.

Presents information on the American Memory Web site of the Library of Congress. Ways to access the online materials; Features of the Web site; Training and resources for teachers.

This section presents several Web sites that contain lesson plans, teacher resources, and other information related to Earth Day and environmental education in the U.S. The Web site of the EnviroLink Network provides a detailed history of Earth Day. The site of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency consists of information about grants and scholarship opportunities, workshops and conferences, community service projects, and curriculum resources. The site of the Natural Resources Defense Council includes articles on research updates, legislative issues, financial concerns, and current events.