ABSTRACT
E ach semester, to start the first session of my class on teaching language arts, I (author Beverly DeVries) ask my students: “If you were interviewing with a principal for a fourth-grade teaching position, and he told you that his school is departmentalized and you would be teaching language arts, would you know what you had to teach?” Inevitably, I get answers such as, “grammar, spelling, literature, penmanship, reading, and writing.” When I tell them there is much more they would need to teach, they ask, “Like what?” They are surprised to hear that they also would be expected to teach speaking, listening, viewing, and visual representing.
