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Content and Teaching Strategies
SEVENTH CANADIAN EDITION

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 Balanced Instructional Frameworks 53
Resource-Based Units 53
Theme Study Units 54
Inquiry-Based Units 55
Readers and Writers Workshops 55
The Teacher's Role 58
Differentiating to Meet the Needs of Every Student 61
Review 64
Theory to Practice 65

Chapter 3 Emergent Literacy 68

Fostering Young Children's Interest in Literacy 69

Written Language Concepts 69
Alphabet Concepts 72
Young Children Become Readers 79
Read -Aloud 81
Shared Reading 81
Guided Reading 86
Inviting Others to Support Children's Literacy Development 88

Young Children Become Writers 92

Assessment of Writing 96
Review 96
Theory to Practice 97

Chapter 4 Listening and Speaking in the Classroom 100

Listening in the Classroom 101

The Listening Process 101

Purposes for Listening 101
Teaching Listening Strategies 103
Aesthetic Listening 104
Strategies for Aesthetic Listening 105
Reading Aloud to Students 105
Teaching Aesthetic Listening 107
Assessing Students' Aesthetic Listening 109
Efferent Listening 112
Strategies for Efferent Listening 112
Teaching Efferent Listening 115
Assessing Students' Efferent Listening 117
Differentiating to Meet the Needs of Every Student 117
Speaking in the Classroom 118

Talking in Small Groups 118

Guidelines for Talking in the Classroom 119
Types of Conversations 120
Teaching Students to Talk in Small Groups 121

CONTENTS VII
 Differentiating to Meet the Needs of Every Student 122
Assessing Students' Talking Abilities 122
Aesthetic Talking 123
Conversations about Literature 123
Efferent Talking 126
Talking during Theme Study Un its 126
Sharing Time 129
Oral Reports 131
Interviews 134
Debates 135

Review 137
Theory to Practice 138

Chapter 5 The Reading and Writing Processes 141

The Reading Process 142
Aesthetic and Efferent Reading 142
Stage I: Prereading 143
Stage 2: Reading 147
Stage 3: Responding 150
Stage 4: Exploring 153
Stage 5: Extending 154
Teaching the Reading Process 156
Differentiating to Meet the Needs of Every Student 159
The Writing Process 160
Stage I: Prewriting 160
Stage 2: Drafting 162
Stage 3: Revising 164
Stage 4: Editing 167
Stage 5: Publishing 170
Teaching the Writing Process 171
The Author's Craft 174
Linking the Six Traits to the Writing Process 175
Differentiating to Meet the Needs of Every Student 175
Connections between the Reading and Writing Processes 177
Comparing the Two Processes 177
Classroom Connections 178
Other Considerations in Teaching Reading and Writing Processes 178
Assessing Students' Reading and Writing 179
Monitoring Students' Progress 180
Implementing Portfolios in the Classroom 188
Assigning Grades 189
Large-Scale Formal Assessment 193
Review 193
Theory to Practice 194

V III CONTENTS
Chapter 6 Reading and Writing Narrative Text 197
Concept of Story 198
Elements of Story Structure 198
Teaching Students about Stories 206
Differentiating to Meet the Needs of Every Student 206
Assessing Students' Concept of Story 209
Reading Stories 209
Strategies for Reading 210
Teaching Stories 212
Assessing Students' Understanding of Stories 213
Writing Stories 214
Writing Retellings 214
Assessing the Stories Students Write Using Rubrics 217
Personal Writing: Journals and Blogs 217
Personal Journals 218
Classroom Biogs 219
Dialogue Journals 220
Reading Response Journals 222
Double-Entry Journals 222
Simulated Journals 224
Exploring Poetry Playing with Words 224
Chanting 226
Experimenting with Rhyme 226
Other Poetic Devices 227
Reading Poetry 228
Teaching Students to Read Poems 230
Assessing Students' Experiences with Poems 234
Writing Poetry 235
Formula Poems 235
Free-Form Poems 237
Syllable- and Word-Count Poems 238
Rhymed Verse Forms 240
Teaching Students to Write Poems 241
Differentiating to Meet the N eeds of Every Student 244
Assessing Poems That Students Write 244

Review 245
Theory to Practice 246

Chapter 7 Reading and Writing Expository Text 250

'fypes of Informational Books 251
Expository Text Structures 254
Teaching Students to Read and Learn from Expository Text 257
Reading Content-Area Textbooks 262
Reading and Writing Digital Text- A Special Form of Expository Text 264
Assessing Students' Use of Expository Text Structures 267

CONTENTS IX
 Reports 268
Young Children's Reports268
Collaborative Reports 269
Individual Reports 271
Teaching Students to Write Reports 271
Multigen re Projects 271
Assessing Students' Reports and Projects 27 4
Letters 274
Writing Letters 275
Email and Text Messages 278
Assessing Students' Letters 279
Differentiating to Meet the needs of Every Student 279
Review 281
Theory t o Practice 281

Chapter 8 Words, Their Meanings, and the Tools to Use

Them: Grammar, Spelling, Handwriting, and Word
Processing 284
Words an d Their Meanings 285
Root Words and Affixes285
Synonyms and Antonyms 287

Homonyms 289
Multiple Meanings and Ambiguity 290
Idioms and Metaphors 290
Sources of New Words 291
Teaching Students about Words 292
Word Walls 294
Word-Study Activities 295
Minilessons on Word Meanings 299
Differentiating to Meet the Needs of Every Student 299
Assessing Students' Use of Words 299
Grammar 300
Why Teach Grammar? 300
Grammatical Concepts 301
Teaching Grammar in the Elementary Grades 302
Differentiating to Meet the Needs of Every Student 308
Assessing Students' Knowledge about Grammar 309
Spelling 310
Children's Spelling Development 310
Stages of Spelling Development 311
Teaching Spelling in the Elementary Grades 315
Differentiating to Meet the Needs of Every Student 319
Assessing Students' Progress in Spelling 320
Handwriting 321
Handwriting Forms 322
Teaching Handwriting in Kindergarten and the Elementary Grades 323
Differentiating to Meet the Needs of Every Student 327

X CONTENTS
 Assessing Handwriting 327
Word Processing in the Elementary Grades 328
Review 329
Theory to Practice 330

Chapter 9 Viewing and Visually Representing 334

Visual Literacy 335

Media Literacy 337

The Viewing Process 338

Steps in the Viewing Process 338
Purposes for Viewing 338
Teaching Viewing Strategies 339
Critical Viewing and Listening 341
Persuasion and Propaganda 341
Strategies for Critical Viewing and Listening 343
The Visually Representing Process 345
Purposes for Visually Representing 346
Integrating Representation Strategies 346
Teaching Critical Listening, Viewing, and Visually
Representing 349
Differentiating to Meet the Needs of Every Student 352
Assessing Students' Critical Viewing and Visually Representing 352
Review 353
Theory to Practice 354

Chapter 10 The Language Arts and the Fine Arts 357

Integrating the Fine Arts 358
Reasons for Integrating the Fine Arts with the Language Arts 359
The Language Arts and Visual Art 360

The Language Arts and Music 364

The Language Arts and Drama 366

Readers Theatre 366
Story Vines 367
Story Dramas 368
Tableaux 369
Socio-dramatic Play (Role-Play) 369
The Language Arts and Dance 369

Review 371
Theory to Practice 371

CONTENTS XI
 Chapter 11 Putting ltAIITogether 374
Resource-Based Units 376
How to Develop a Resource-Based Unit 377
A Primary-Grade Resource-Based Unit on The Mitten 382
A Middle-Grade Resource-Based Unit on Deborah Ellis and Her Books 384
An Upper-Grade Resource-Based Unit on The Crazy Man 384
Theme Study Units and Inquiry-Based Units 387
How to Develop a Theme Study Unit or an Inquiry-Based Unit 387
Readers and Writers Workshops 389
Establishing a Workshop Environment390
How to Set Up a Readers Workshop 392
Variations of Readers Workshop 394
How to Set Up a Writers Workshop 396
Variations of Writers Workshop 396

Review 400
Theory to Practice 401

Appendix A Basic Grammar, Punctuation, and Syntax 402

Appendix B Manuscript and Cursive Handwriting Forms 406
Glossary 407
References 413
Name Index 438
Subject Index 441

XII CONTENTS
 re ace

Teachers who help students grow into literacy and learn to communicate effectively
are cognizant of the con1.plexities of those processes. They are also very aware of the
cultural and linguistic diversity the students present in their classrooms. Further,
technological advances both enhance and transform the nature of language learning
and teaching.
It is our intent with this seventh Canadian edition of Language and Literacy: Con-
tent and Teaching Strategies to provide a useful resource for teachers as they meet the
challenges of literacy instruction in today's classrooms. Both pre-service and in-service
teachers will find this text a valuable addition to their professional libraries. For pre-
service teachers who will work with students in kindergarten through grade 8, the
text offers a consistent model of instruction that will help them becon1.e knowledge-
able about language learning and guide the many instructional decisions they will
make. For experienced in-service teachers, the text provides a rich array of strategies
and ideas that they can adapt to suit their personal instructional styles. For all, it
offers extensive suggestions of high quality literature for children and young adults,
among them, many Canadian titles.
The seventh Canadian edition of Language and Literacy is a significant revision of
a popular core text designed for elementary and middle-school language and literacy
courses.

Philosophy of the Text

The philosophy of Language and Literacy reflects a constructivist approach to teaching
and learning. The processes of reading and writing provide the foundation for the
instructional approaches presented: resource-based units, theme study units, inquiry-
based units, and readers and writers workshops. Such tin1.eless, research-based
approaches to teaching share these important features:
• Establishing a co1nmunity of learners
• Using exemplary children's and young adult literature
• Involving students in meaningful, functional, and genuine activities and
decision making
• Engaging students with new literacies through digital technologies
• Teaching skills and strategies in context
• Integrating instruction and assessment

Goal of the Text

The goal of Language and Literacy is to present the nature of language and language
learning together with the most effective strategies for teaching the language arts.
The text is organized into three parts. The first two chapters present an overview of
learning and teaching the language arts. The nuddle chapters describe the content
and teaching strategies that represent research-based best practices for learning and

X 111
 assessment. The final chapter demonstrates how to create a variety of field-tested
literacy instructional plans.
Throughout the text, five features are presented to enhance readers' understand-
ing. At the beginning of each chapter, To Guide Your Reading sets out goals for read-
ing. The points listed give readers an overview of essential information and guide
them in assessing their mastery of chapter content after reading. Step by Step infor-
n1.ational textboxes show readers the sequential steps in applying teaching strategies
that have been described within the preceding text. Collectively, the panels provide
a syllabus of the teaching strategies included in the text. Minilessons draw attention to
specific information concerning broad topics such as reading and writing stories.
They list relevant procedures, concepts, strategies, and skills. Teachers Notebook text-
boxes enrich selected topics presented more generally within the chapter text. They
expand upon salient aspects of topics by offering detailed information and in n1.any
instances offer examples of instructional applications of the information. Finally, the
fourth feature, Differentiating to Meet the Needs of Every Student, offers readers possible
ways to adjust instruction to address the ever-present variations among classroom
learners. Suggestions included in this feature show both how to enrich and how to
simplify instructional practices. Although each type of textbox is distinctive one
from the other, together they guide, elaborate, and extend the topical information of
each chapter.
The seventh Canadian edition continues to recognize the importance of the
Canadian context for teaching language and literacy in schools, in addition to the
valuable role that teachers play in offering effective literacy instruction. This edition
also acknowledges the availability of digital technologies in students' lives and pro-
vides literacy practices that help learners access, analyze, evaluate, and make use of
those expanded technologies.

Highlights and Features of the

Seventh Canadian Edition
• New ''Literacy in Action'' teacher stories before each chapter highlight
effective literacy practice in Canadian classrooms.
• New literacies and critical literacy are included in Chapter 1 with refer-
ence to literacy practices, such as digital storytelling, blogging, and other
online activities.
• New content on viewing and visually representing strengthens the visual
literacy component of the book. Teaching and learning activities relating
to these specific paired skills have also been added.
• New Canadian research and new culturally diverse Canadian literature and
resources have been added, with specific attention to a new genre of litera-
ture referred to as narrative nonfiction or creative nonfiction.
• New resources have been added in the area of integrating the fine arts into
literacy programs.
• Content is drawn from across Canada. The work of Canadian researchers
is noted and examples are drawn from Canadian classroo1ns.
• New and extended ideas are offered for clifferentiating instruction to meet
the needs of every student, especially English language learners.
• Lists of exen1.plary literature have been updated, including a vast array of
Canadian children's and young adult literature.

XIV PREFACE
 • More information on integrating communication technology into lan-
guage and literacy classroom programs has been incorporated throughout
the book. Specifically, attention is paid to the important relationship
between the foundational literacies we have always taught in schools (reading,
writing, listening, speaking, viewing, and visually representing) and the
new literacies (navigating websites, using multin1.edia for con1.munication,
synthesizing information, and critically evaluating online resources)
required to take advantage of communicating online.
• To Guide Your Reading helps instructors and student teachers set learning
goals for the reading of each chapter.
• Step by Step makes clear the sequential steps in employing each of the
many instructional strategies described throughout the text.
• Minilessons show readers the procedures, concepts, strategies, and skills
encompassed in topics critical to comprehensive language arts instruction.
• Teacher's Notebook offers readers essential background and examples of
classroon1. applications of concepts salient to research-based instruction.
• Differentiating to Meet the Needs of Every Student guides readers to
understand how classroom instruction can be varied to meet the instruc-
tional needs of diverse learners.
• The Glossary is extensive and provides useful definitions of terms through-
out the book.

Instructor Resources
The following instructor supplen1.ents are available for downloading from a password-
protected section of Pearson Canada's online catalogue (catalogue.pearsoned.ca).
Navigate to your book's catalogue page to view a list of those supplements that are
available. See your local sales representative for details and access.
• Instructor's Manual
The Instructor's Manual contains a wealth of resources for instructors,
including chapter overviews, outlines, teaching suggestions, and further
readings. A very practical resource, the Instructor's Manual will help teach-
ers create engaging lesson plans and an environment of literacy for their
students.
• Test Item File
This test bank in Microsoft Word format contains a complete series of fill-
in-the-blank, true/false, n1.ultiple choice, short-answer, and application
questions, which will enable teachers to create interesting and meaningful
student assessments.
• Learning Solutions Managers
Pearson's Learning Solutions Managers work with faculty and ca111.pus
course designers to ensure that Pearson technology products, assessment
tools, and online course n1aterials are tailored to meet your specific needs.
This highly qualified team is dedicated to helping schools take full advan-
tage of a wide range of educational resources, by assisting in the integra-
tion of a variety of instructional materials and media formats. Your local
Pearson Education sales representative can provide you with more details
on this service program.

PREFACE XV
 Acknowledgments
First, we would like to thank the experienced staff fron-i the University of Lethbridge
Curriculum Laboratory and Bookstore, whose knowledge of children's and teachers'
resources continues to amaze and delight us. They were instrumental in helping us
identify high-quality literature to include in this text.
Second, we would like to thank the instructors who have provided invaluable
reviewer feedback over the years.
Furthern-iore, we want to thank the teachers who shared their practices pre-
sented in the chapter-opening Literacy in Action vignettes:
Daniel Buchanan, Calgary, Alberta
Jessica Currie, Ottawa, Ontario
Linda Pierce Picciotto, Vancouver, British Columbia
Samantha Wishewan, Sherwood Park, Alberta
Lisa Jensen, Lethbridge, Alberta
Grace Chan, Toronto, Ontario
Dawn King-Hunter, Lethbridge, Alberta
Janice Beland, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories
Kati Devlin, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Heidi Jardine-Stoddart, Quispamsis, New Brunswick
Cheryl Miller, Picture Butte, Alberta

Our appreciation is also extended to the children who provided writing san-iples,
pictures, and photographs that appear in this edition of the text. Finally, thanks go to
Kin-iberley Veevers, Michelle Bish, and John Polanszky fron-i Pearson Canada, and to
developmental editor Cheryl Finch, production editor Dipika Rungta and copy
editor Joel Gladstone. They have worked diligently with us to make this seventh
Canadian edition of Language and Literacy: Content and Teaching Strategies a reality.

XVI PREFACE
 out t e ut ors

Gail E. Tompkins I'm a teacher, first and foremost. I began my career as a first-
grade teacher in Virginia in the 1970s. I ren1.en1.ber one first grader who cried as the
first day of school was ending. When I tried to comfort him, he sobbed accusingly,
''I came to first grade to learn to read and write and you forgot to teach n1.e." I've
never forgotten that child's comment and what it taught 11.1.e: teachers n1.ust under-
stand their students and meet their expectations.
My first few years of teaching left me with more questions than answers, and I
wanted to become a more effective teacher, so I started taking graduate courses. In
time I earned a master's degree and then a doctorate in reading/language arts, both
from Virginia Tech. Through my graduate studies, I learned a lot of answers, but
n1.ore important, I learned to keep asking questions.
Then I began teaching at the university level. First I taught at Miami University
in Ohio, then at the University of Oklahoma, and finally at California State
University, Fresno. I've taught pre-service teachers and practising teachers working
on master's degrees, and I've directed doctoral dissertations. I've received awards for
my teaching, including the Provost's Award for Excellence in Teaching at California
State University, Fresno, and I was inducted into the California Reading Association's
Reading Hall of Fame. Throughout the years, my students have taught me as much
as I taught then1.. 1'11.1. grateful to all of them for what I've learned.
I've been writing college textbooks for more than twenty years, and I think of
the books I write as teaching, too. I'll be teaching you as you read this text.
When I'm not teaching, I like to make quilts, and piecing together a quilt is a lot
like planning effective language arts instruction. Instead of cloth, teachers use the
patterns of practice and other instructional procedures to design instruction for the
diverse students in today's classrooms.

Robin M. Bright is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of

Lethbridge. She teaches courses to undergraduate and graduate students in the areas
of language and literacy, children's and young adult literature, reading, writing, and
gender. Previously, Robin taught elementary school for ten years. Robin has long
been committed to teaching wherever literacy and teaching education are relevant.
Unique in her approach as an educator, Robin models for preservice teachers sound
pedagogy, curriculun1. knowledge, and collaborative research; her leadership extends
beyond the classroon1. and the University into school communities, across the prov-
ince, and the country. She received both the Excellence in Teaching Award from the
Alberta Ministry of Education and the Distinguished Teaching Award from the
University of Lethbridge. She also served as Board of Governor's Teaching Chair for
the University of Lethbridge.
Robin is the author of several books including Writing Instruction in the Intermediate
Grades: What Is Said, What Is Done, What Is Understood (International Reading
Association, 1995); Write from the Start: Writers Workshop in the Primary Grades
(Portage & Main, 2001); Write Througli the Grades: Teaching Writing in the Secondary
School (Portage & Main, 2007); the co-author of From Your Child's Teacher: Helping a

XVI I
 Child Learn to Read, Write and Speak (FP Hendriks, 1998); and has written numerous
articles on learning to read and write. Her work has appeared in the Journal ofReading
Education, Canadian Children, the Canadian Journal of English Language Arts, Alberta
English, The Writing Teacher, English Quarterly, and the Journal of Teacher Education, and
she twice received the Journal Article of the Year for research that appeared in
International Reading Association-refereed journals. Robin values the opportunity
to work with student teachers and teachers through professional development activ-
ities related to meeting the varied literacy needs and interests of Canadian children.

Pamela J. T. Winsor is professor emerita from the Faculty of Education at the

University of Lethbridge. She taught graduate and undergraduate courses in lan-
guage education with a focus on early literacy, literacy in elementary classrooms, and
literacy across curriculum. She was a supervisor and mentor of student teachers at
both beginning and advanced levels of their field experiences.
Pamela regularly presented at local, national, and international conferences on
topics related to early literacy development and associated classroom practices. She
also shared with teachers and students her enthusiasm for making global children's
literature a dynamic part of young readers' experiences with literature. Her work
concerning literacy, literature, and teacher education extends internationally. She is
currently a volunteer consultant to Reading Kenya, a teacher education project
sponsored by CODE that focuses on helping teachers increase their capacity to offer
effective early literacy instruction. Kenyan teachers have given her the Masai name,
N aisola, meaning the best. In the past, she has participated in educational develop-
ment projects in Belize, South Africa, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, and Ghana.
A strong believer in a symbiotic relationship between research and teaching prac-
tice, she recently developed a global micro-library as a teaching resource and a way of
bringing the world to classrooms through multicultural literature. She is the author of
Language Experience Approach to Literacy for Children Learning English (Portage &
Main, 2009) as well as several articles. Her work has appeared in The Reading Teacher,
Journal of Reading, Alberta English, Teaching Exceptional Children, and the Journal
of Teacher Education.

XV II I ABOUT THE AUTHORS

 •
I

Chapter 1: Integrating Digital

Photography and Life Writing
in a Multi-modal Literacy Project
Procedure
The Hope Project h as been a favourite for a few years, although it ch anges from year
to year. A major component of the humanities curriculum is constructing and sharing
multi-modal life w riting texts. By providing space for students to w rite and share
their p ersonal narratives we build a conm1.unity based on empathy and understanding.
Each year, the students' widely differing cultural and linguistic backgrounds, family
origins, interests, talents, and ambitions enrich our learning community.
Through the integration of photography, w riting, design, and fram e construc-
tion, the Hope Project's multiple layers of m eaning provide students with opportun-
ities to be su ccessful.
I b egin the proj ect by show ing students a video entitled, What if M oney Were
N o Object, a recorded sp eech by Alan Watts. The central message urges attending to
w hat gives p assion in life; w hat inspires and gives hope. After viewing the video, I
ask students the question: ''What is hope?'' As students give their suggestions, one
student records them on the interactive w hiteboard. Students offer multiple defin-
itions such as, ''It's w h at gets you up in the morning''.
We come to a gen eral understanding that Hope m eans something different to
each person. We then brainstorm ideas from our ow n lives that give us hope. I
present my ideas. I include sports I love playing, the n ames of my daughters and wife,
and ways of b eing, su ch as selflessn ess. When students have a list of ideas, I ask them
to circle their top choices to w rite about. This year, I circled my daughter's n ame,
Holly. I asked the class to watch w hile I w rote a first draft of my Hope Writing, not-
ing that I was limiting myself to five n1.inutes because this was the first draft. Students
watched and read as I w rote about how Holly gives m e Hope. When I finished w rit-
ing, I read it aloud being sure not to correct any nustakes. In draft w riting, I want
students to fo cus on their thoughts and feelings, not how to spell or organize a para-
graph. I then ask students to w rite for five minutes about their circled ideas. I col-
lected first drafts and read through each one carefully, circling strong ideas and posing
questions that might provoke more insight.
The following day, I returned the first drafts, asked students to read my conlffients
and questions, then gave students 15 minutes to construct second drafts. Limited time
helps students attend to the most n ecessary specifics. On subsequent days, they strive to
polish their w riting.
 On the third day, I asked our school's digital photography teacher to give a lesson
on specific ''rules'' of photography, including leading lines, the rule of thirds, and focal
points. To hone their photography skills, the students completed a photography scav-
enger hunt. In 60 minutes, they were to take photos, upload, and share them on
Google Drive. We viewed each class member's portfolio, highlighted strong photos,
and made suggestions to enhance others.
Later, I asked students to take a photo related to their Hope writing. The photo
had to pair with, and enhance, the meaning of their written text.
In Industrial Arts, the students were creating wooden frames and matting for their
Hope photos. They were asked to select key thematic words and phrases from their
writing to decorate the edges of their frames. The photos, in their frames, were show-
cased next to the students' writing in our school's foyer. Each year, we come to value
each other and the ways that multi-modal communication helps us learn together.

Assessment
To ensure success, we begin by breaking the assignment into individual components:
the writing, the photo, and the frame. After looking at exemplars of past students'
work, we brainstorm the indicators of success and develop a draft rubric. I then
complete the rubric. From the rubric, we create a checklist of hints to follow when
writing, taking photos, and building frames.
Each draft students write gives me an opportunity for assessment and students
room for revision. We also spend time looking at and assessing each other's photos
and frames. Students use the rubric to make suggestions to their peers.

Adaptation
Students learn quickly that no writing is ever truly completed and that different media
can change the writing greatly. When I have asked students ''How can we enhance
this writing even more?'' or ''What can we do next?'', students often suggest digitiz-
ing their stories using available recording devices to create a different experiences for
their audience. Some of the digital stories they create are quite breathtaking.
For lower grades, I use the same overall strategies, but focus on a less abstract con-
cept than hope. I read The Best Part efMe by Wendy Ewald (2002), and invite students
to create works similar to the black and white photos and writing in the book.

Reflection
My goal in Humanities is to design learning tasks through which students under-
stand themselves and their peers more deeply; that they come to consider others in
relation to themselves; and contemplate their understanding can ultimately bring
about progressive change. By pairing a traditional literacy writing with the craft-
ing of a frame and the capturing of a meaningful photo, students come to see them-
selves as capable of constructing multi-modal complex projects.

From the classroom of Daniel Buchanan, Grades 5 and 6 Humanities Teacher

Simon Fraser Middle School
Calgary,AB

2 LITERACY IN ACT ION

 CHAPTER

Learning and the Language Arts

LEARNING OUTCOMES
After you read this chapter you
should be able to:
I. Explain how children learn
2. Explain the roles of
language, culture, and
technology in learning
3. Describe how critical
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4. Describe how multili-
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5. List and define the six
:E language arts

During their class "Family Literacy Evening" students proudly share their writing
about the exemplary books they have been reading. Their writing includes titles,
authors, opinions, reflections, and recommendations. This strategy encourages the
students to share their reading with each other.

eachers face new challenges and opportunities every day. The

students who come to Canadian classrooms bring with them
widely variant cultural and linguistic backgrounds and life
experiences. Teachers are teaching and students are learning in diverse
environments, rich in possibilities. In these environments, teachers are
decision makers. They are empowered with both the obligation and
the responsibility to make curricular decisions to meet student needs.
In the language and literacy program, these curricular decisions have an
impact on the content (information being taught), the teaching strat-
egies (techniques), and the resources (literature, print, digital, and other
materials). To make such decisions effectively, teachers draw upon foun-
dational research and understandings concerning how children learn, as
 well as current insights about instruction and appropriate, high quality resources.
When teachers embrace the challenges and opportunities presented in diverse
classrooms, everyone benefits.

How Children Learn

Language acquisition theorists emphasize the importance of language in learning
and view learning as a reflection of the culture and community in which students
live (Heath, 1983b; Vygotsky, 1978, 1986). According to Russian psychologist Lev
Vygotsky (1896-1934), language helps organize thought, and children use language
to learn as well as to communicate and share experiences with others. Understand-
ing that children use language for social purposes, teachers plan instructional activ-
ities that incorporate a social component, such as having students share their
writing and discuss their reading with classmates. And because children's language
and concepts of literacy reflect their cultures and home communities, teachers
must respect students' language and appreciate cultural differences in their attitudes
toward learning and toward learning the language arts in particular.
Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget (1896-1980) developed a theory of learning that rad-
ically changed our conceptions of child develop1nent. His constructivist framework
differs substantially from behavioural theories that had influenced education for dec-
ades. Piaget described learning as the n1.odification of students' cognitive structures as
they interact with and adapt to their environment. He believed that children con-
struct their own knowledge from their experiences. This view of learning requires a
close examination of the teacher's role. Instead of being primarily dispensers of
knowledge, teachers provide students with reading and writing experiences and
opportunities to construct their own knowledge through problem-solving, web-
based inquiries, and other dynamic interactive activities.

The Process of Learning

Children's knowledge is not just a collection of isolated bits of information; it is
organized in the brain, and this organization becomes increasingly integrated and
interrelated as children's knowledge grows. The organization of knowledge is the
cognitive structure, and knowledge is arranged in category systems called schemata
(a single category is called a schema) . Within the schemata are three components:
categories of knowledge, the features or rules for deternuning what constitutes a
category and what will be included in each category, and a network of interrelation-
ships an1.ong the categories.
These schemata may be likened to a conceptual filing system in which children
and adults organize and store the inforn1.ation derived from their past experiences.
Taking this analogy further, information is filed in the brain in ''file folders." As chil-
dren learn, they add file folders to their filing syste1n, and as they study a topic, that
file folder becon1.es thicker.
As children learn, they invent new categories, and while different people have
many similar categories, schemata are personalized according to individual experi-
ences and interests. Some people, for example, n1.ay have only one general category,
bugs, into which they lun1.p their knowledge of ants, butterflies, spiders, and bees,
while other people distinguish between insects and spiders and develop a category
for each. Those who distinguish between insects and spiders also develop a set of
4 CHAPTER I LEARNING AND THE LANGUAGE ARTS
rules based on the distinctive characteristics of these animals for classifying them into
one category or the other. In addition to insect or spider categories, a network of
interrelationships connects these categories to other categories. Networks, too, are
individualized, depending on each person's unique knowledge and experiences. The
category of spiders might be networked as a subcategory of arachnids, and the class
relationship between scorpions and spiders might be made. Other networks, such as
a connection to a poisonous animals category or a webs and nests category, could have
been made. The networks that link categories, characteristics, and examples with
other categories, characteristics, and examples are extremely complex. As children
adapt to their environment, they add new information about their experiences that
requires them to enlarge existing categories or to construct new ones.
Two processes make this change possible. Assimilation is the cognitive process
by which new information in the environment is integrated into existing schemata.
In contrast, accommodation is the cognitive process by which existing schemata are
modified or new schemata are restructured to adapt to the environment. Through
assimilation, children add new information to their picture of the world; through
accommodation, they change that picture on the basis of new information.
Learning occurs through the process of equilibration (Piaget, 1975). When a child
encounters something he or she does not understand or cannot assimilate, disequilib-
rium, or cognitive conflict, results. This disequilibrium typically produces confusion
and agitation, feelings that impel children to seek equilibrium, or a comfortable balance
with the environment. In other words, when confronted with new or discrepant infor-
mation, children (as well as adults) are intrinsically motivated to try to make sense of it.
If the child's schemata can accommodate the new information, then the disequilibrium
caused by the new experience will motivate the child to learn. Equilibrium is thus
regained at a higher developmental level. These are the steps of this process:
1. Equilibrium is disrupted by the introduction of new or discrepant information.
2. Disequilibrium occurs, and the dual processes of assimilation and accommodation
function.
3. Equilibrium is attained at a higher developmental level.

The process of equilibration happens to us again and again during the course of
a day. In fact, it is occurring right now as you are reading this chapter. If you are
already familiar with the constructivist learning theory and have learned about
Piaget in other education courses, your mental filing cabinet has been activated and
you are assimilating the information you are reading into the folder on ''Piaget'' or
''learning theories'' already in your files. If, however, you're not familiar with con-
structivist learning theories, your mind is actively creating a new file folder in which
to put the information you are reading.

Learning Strategies
We all have skills that we use automatically, as well as self-regulating strategies for things
that we do well driving defensively, playing volleyball, training a new pet, or main-
taining classroom discipline. We apply skills we have learned unconsciously and choose
among skills as we think strategically. The strategies we use in these activities are prob-
lem-solving mechanisms that involve complex thinking processes. When we are first
learning how to drive a car, for example, we learn both skills and strategies. Some of
the first skills we learn are how to start the engine, make left turns, and parallel park.
With practice, these skills become automatic. Some of the first strategies we learn are
HOW CHILDREN LEARN 5
 how to pass another car and how to stay a safe distance behind the vehicles ahead of us.
At first we have only a small repertoire of strategies, and we don't always use them
effectively. That's one reason why we take lessons from a driving instructor and have a
learner's permit that requires a more experienced driver to ride along with us. A sea-
soned driver teaches us defensive driving strategies. We learn strategies for driving on
superhighways, on slippery roads, and at night. With practice and guidance, we become
more successful drivers, able to anticipate driving problems and take defensive actions.
Children develop a number of learning strategies or methods for learning.
Rehearsal repeating information over and over is one learning strategy or cognitive
process that children can use to remember something. Other learning strategies include:
• Predicting: anticipating what will happen
• Organizing: grouping information into categories
• Elaborating: expanding on the information presented
• Monitoring: regulating or keeping track of progress
Reciprocal teaching theory suggests that as children grow older, their use of
learning strategies improves (Oczkus, 2003; Palincsar & Brown, 1986).
As they acquire more effective methods for learning and remembering informa-
tion, children also become more aware of their own cognitive processes and better
able to regulate them. Elementary and middle-school students can reflect on their
literacy processes and talk about themselves as readers and writers. For example,
grade 2 student Trisha describes her writing: ''That's the writing we do for 'Kids in
the News.' 'Kids in the News' is where we write to somebody. We can write to
anybody ... and then they have to write back to us something about what we did.
I like to write to my mom, my dad, my auntie, my cousin, my brother, my sister, or
Miss W [her classroom teacher], or Janie'' (McKay & Kendrick, 2001, p. 14).
Fifth grader Hobbes reports that ''the pictures in my head help me when I write
stuff down 'cause then I can get ideas from my pictures'' (Cleary, 1993, p. 142).
Eighth grader Chandra talks about poetry: ''Poetry is a fine activity, and it can get
you in tune with yourself. . . . I think that my favourite person who does poetry is
Maya Angelou'' (Steinbergh, 1993, p. 212).
Students become more realistic about the limitations of their memories and more
knowledgeable about which learning strategies are most effective in particular situations.
They also become increasingly aware of what they know and don't know. The term
metacognition refers to this knowledge children acquire about their own cognitive pro-
cesses and to children's regulation of their cognitive processes to maximize learning.
Teachers play an important role in developing children's metacognitive abilities.
During large-group activities, teachers introduce and model learning strategies. In
small-group lessons, teachers provide guided practice, talk with children about learning
strategies, and ask students to reflect on their own use of these cognitive processes.
Teachers also guide students about when to use particular strategies and which strat-
egies are more effective with various activities.

Social Contexts of Learning

Children's cognitive development is enhanced through social interaction. In his
social development theory, known as sociolinguistics, Lev Vygotsky asserted that chil-
dren learn through socially meaningful interactions, and that language is both social
and an important facilitator of learning. Children's experiences are organized and
shaped by society, but rather than merely absorbing these experiences, children
6 CHAPTER I LEARNING AND THE LANGUAGE ARTS
Another random document with
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from 943 to 954, had been killed at Stonehaven. Malcolm II, his son,
held the sceptre from 1005 to 1034.
It is well to stop awhile at Glamis Castle, not that it was the
scene of the murder of Duncan, but it has plenty of fascinating lore of
its own, besides having Macbeth as a tenant.
It was at Glamis Castle, in 1745, that Bonnie Prince Charlie slept
on one night, to be succeeded on the next by the Duke of
Cumberland, who occupied the very same room. The housekeeper
conducts the visitor over the historic and antique portion of the
castle, and the place is well worth seeing, for it makes the past seem
very real. Moreover, though such sight-seeing does not supply facts,
in place of Shakespeare’s creation, it helps to the enjoyment of the
truth personified. We may delight in facts, for they are necessary; but
truth is more. Whatever the facts concerning the historical Macbeth,
they were long ago “stranded on the shore of the oblivious years.”
They were, but the truth was, and is, and is to come. Human nature
is the one thing that changes not, and that eternal element
Shakespeare pictured.
We were visiting Dunkeld, in company with a party of pretty
maidens and rosy-cheeked Scottish youth from Dundee, seeing its
cathedral, ruins, waterfalls, and modern products, when we first
realized that we were in the land of Macbeth. Immediately, all the
useful and statistical data, gathered up on that August day, and even
the fact that Dunkeld, now having fewer than a thousand people,
was once a bishopric, seemed to fade into insignificance compared
with the value and importance of the imaginary—the world outside of
history and of science. We looked southward to see Birnam wood,
whose trees and branches were to move to Dunsinane in the
Scotland hills and fulfil the sinister prophecy of the witches.
Later on, we found comrades for a walk to Dunsinane Hill, which
is only twelve miles northwest of Dundee. All who have read
Shakespeare know that this was the scene of the closing tragedy in
the play of “Macbeth.” We pass red-roofed cottages, and the ruins of
an old feudal stronghold. It is a square tower, having walls of
immense thickness, with the deep, well-like dungeon, cut into the
rock, down which the keeper lowers for you a lighted candle. In place
of the old arched floors, which added strength and solidity to the
tower walls, there are platforms reached by stairways. Ascending to
the top of the tower and emerging by a doorway to the bartizan on
the outside, we have a most magnificent view of the wide-spreading
valley of the Tay, with its manifold tokens of a rich civilization, lying
like a panorama at our feet. One of these is Kinaird Castle, which
belonged to a family which, having taken the wrong side in the
uprising of 1715, had their lands forfeited.
Leaving this mass of stone behind us, we pass on to the upland
moors, and after three or four miles see the two bold hills, the King’s
Seat and Dunsinane. As we proceed, we find several old stones
which, not being rolling, have gathered on their faces a rich crop of
the moss of legend. The southern face of Dunsinane Hill is sheer
and steep, but the view from the top is magnificent. Here on the
summit we can barely trace the foundations of the second castle of
Macbeth, which he built after leaving Glamis and to which he retired.
Here he lived in the hope of finding security, the witches having
predicted that he would never be conquered until “Birnam wood
came to Dunsinane.” Thinking to make assurance doubly sure, he
compelled the nobles and their retainers to build new fortifications for
him. Men and oxen were so roughly impressed in the work that he
made enemies of old friends and rupture soon occurred between him
and Macduff.
After his father’s murder, Malcolm fled to England, whence a
powerful army was sent to invade Scotland. The Scots joined the
standard of the young prince and the army marched northward
unopposed and encamped twelve miles away, at Birnam, under the
shelter of a forest, which then covered the hill, but is now no more.
The soldiers, each one having cut down a branch of a tree,—
probably not with any knowledge of the witch’s prophecy, but to
conceal their numbers,—made a moving mass of green. Macbeth,
looking out from the battlements of his castle, beheld what seemed
to him a vast forest in motion across the plain to overwhelm him with
destruction.
 Whatever was really true in the matter, tradition has adopted the
element of poetical justice so often illustrated by the great
Shakespeare, though some reports are that Macbeth escaped from
two battles with his life and kept up a guerilla warfare in the north,
until killed in a conflict in Aberdeenshire. In another Scottish town,
we were shown a school which stands on the site of the old castle of
the Macduffs, the Thanes or Earls of Fife.

A TYPICAL SCOTTISH STREET: HIGH STREET, DUMFRIES

The touch of genius has made the name of Macbeth immortal.
He is known wherever the English language is read or spoken. How
different is the fate of those humbler folk, who lie in the ooze of the
past, unrecalled by poet or dramatist! In not a few places in
Scotland, one meets the pathetic sight of old tombs and graveyards
that are, in some instances, hardly visible for the greenery that
covers them. Here “the rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep,” but
even the hamlet is gone, the church is in ruins, and the descendants
of those who once lived and loved and died are now on various
continents. They have found other homes, and most of them,
children of the new lands, only vaguely remember, or most probably
are ignorant of, the place in which their forefathers dwelt and whence
their parents or grandparents came.
Occasionally one meets an old man or woman in the great cities,
like Glasgow or Dundee, who will tell of the joys remembered or
glories passed away, naming the village, perhaps in the glens or on
the carses, which one cannot find on the map, or may discover only
by consulting some old gazetteer in the libraries.
To me, an American, these white-haired old folks I saluted on the
moors and in the glens, recalled the words of our own Holmes, and
especially that stanza which President Lincoln thought the most
pathetic in the English language:—

“The mossy marbles rest

On the lips that he has prest
In their bloom;
And the names he loved to hear
Have been carved for many a year
On the tomb.”

Yet who—unless a Mark Twain, who could drop a tear over

Father Adam’s grave—will weep over the long departed Picts? More
often, while reading the books, rather than when rambling among the
country folk in Scotland, do we hear of these shadowy figures, who
live in ethnology rather than in local tradition.
For example, what became of the “Picts,” who figure so largely in
ancient writings, before Pictland became Scotland? Old legends
represent King Kenneth II, who died in 995, as having “exterminated”
the Picts, who had slain his father. Thus these aborigines sank, in
popular tradition, to mere mythology. A Pict now seems but as a
nixie, a brownie, or some sort of mythical, even fairy folk, hardly
human, to whom great feats, including even the building of Glasgow
Cathedral, are attributed. In 1814, Sir Walter Scott met a dwarfish
traveller in the Orkneys, whom the natives regarded as a “Pecht” or
Pict. So says Andrew Lang. The Picts have been so swallowed up in
oblivion that they are like “the ten lost tribes of Israel”—who never
were “lost” in any sense but that of absence of records, and from a
genealogical point of view. I have met intelligent persons who
thought “the dead cities of the Zuyder Zee”—so denominated by
Henri Havard—were as Pompeii and only waiting to be excavated
and come to resurrection in museums!
The Picts of Scotland are exactly where the ancient Ebisu or
Ainu of Japan are—in the veins of the people now called the
Japanese. The descendants of the Picts to-day talk Scotch, or
English, either of the American or British variety. It is no more
fashionable in Scotland to trace one’s lineage to Pictish forebears,
than in Japan to the Ainu or Ebisu, from whom millions of Japanese
are descended. Who wants to be descended from common savages,
when gods, kings, nobles, and chiefs are as plentiful as herring or
blackberries?
 CHAPTER X
STIRLING: CASTLE, TOWN, AND TOWERS

To ride in fast express trains from town to town, across the

Strathmore, or Great Valley, containing the central plain of Scotland,
on which lies almost every one of its large cities and industrial
centres, makes one thrill when contrasting the present with the past.
Our comrade, Quandril, so fresh on Scottish soil that she had hardly
got the ship’s motion out of her head, was completely daft, when
speeding from Edinburgh to Stirling. So much history, visualized and
made real, acted like a fierce stimulant. The cannonade of fresh
impressions, at every moment, added still further to her delightful
brain disturbance.
Here are two entries from her journal:—
“I am delighted with Scotland. As I realize that I am on Scottish
ground, I can scarcely understand the indifference of the people,
who walk about as if it were nothing remarkable.... Such a sight as
met our astonished vision! Never had our New World eyes seen
anything like this ancient city.”
In riding about in the suburbs, Quandril gathered some wild
poppies. She noticed that every place had its title—Lanark Villa,
Rose Villa, Breezy Brae, etc. In several places, a sign was up
announcing that “this land may be ‘fued.’” The person who rented the
land, using it, without receiving a title in fee simple, was a “feuar.”
How different the Scottish landscape, with its myriad chimneys,
from the feudal days, when this French invention was unknown!
When Scotland had a Robin Hood, in the person of Rob Roy, this
feature was rare. In picturing the long-armed and famous cowboy,
cattle-dealer, friend of the poor, and enemy of the rich, Sir Walter
Scott has told of the desolate character of the tract of country
stretching from the Clyde to the Grampians. One may recall how the
young English horsewoman, whose feelings are described during the
tedious ride toward the adventurous mountain-land, found a willow
wand before the door, as an emblem that the place was tabooed. At
one town we were told of a relic—the coulter of a plough—kept in
commemoration of the event, which may remind us of the story of
the cicerone, who showed the sword with which Balaam smote his
ass. Being told by the tourist that Balaam did not actually smite, but
only desired a sword that he might smite with it, he received the
answer, “Well, that’s the sword he wanted.” This outdid even our own
P. T. Barnum’s story of the club that (might have) killed Captain
Cook. Since at twenty smaller places had the authentic club been
exhibited, Barnum’s show could not be without it, and keep up its
reputation.
To the focus of Scottish history, Stirling, we hied during several of
our journeyings in Scotland. As with Niagara, at the first vision one
may not have grasped the full glory, but a second or third view
deepened one’s impression. There are others, however, who in
imagination, after having read Scott’s “Lady of the Lake” have
pictured to their minds “Stirling’s towers” and were not in the least
disappointed, when beholding for the first time the reality in stone. A
great rock, like that in Edinburgh, rises sheer from the plain. The
tourist sees one of those natural fortresses, around which, first a
church, then a fair, then a village, then a town, and finally, a famous
city have had their evolution. One needs but little power of the
historic imagination to go back to the days before the streets,
avenues, and imposing buildings of to-day existed, and think of
steel-clad knights and long trains of men with claymore and target.
The castle, built on a precipitous rock, overlooks one of those low,
flat, alluvial plains, which the Scots call a carse.
Stirling, which had several names, in different forms, beside the
Gaelic “Struithla,” was also known as “Snowdon,” as those may
remember who have read Scott.
If there be one place north of the Tweed, where, at a single
glance, one may view and comprehend the chief river system of
Scotland, Stirling is that place. From this point one notes the main
streams, the affluents, and the gathering of the waters, which make
the Clyde, the Forth, and the Tay. He can then realize how great and
how important in the political and economic history of Scotland has
been that great central valley, which stretches from the North Sea to
the waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
Stirling touches Scottish history very early. It was so strong, in
1304, that at its most famous siege, by Edward I, pretty much all the
besieging implements and heavy siege machinery had to be brought
from the Tower of London. At last, one engine, called “the Wolf,” was
so terribly destructive that, by filling up the ditch with stones and
rubbish, the English rushed over and fought their way into the keep.
The castle was taken and for ten years it remained in the possession
of the Southrons. In fact, it was to maintain the English grip upon this
stronghold that Edward II assembled that mighty army for invasion,
which was so signally defeated by the Bruce at Bannockburn.

STIRLING CASTLE, FROM THE KING’S KNOT

 When one thinks of that decisive battle, which turned the face of
Scotland for hundreds of years to France, for her art and culture,
instead of to her nearer southern neighbor, England, he is apt to
muse upon the different results had Edward succeeded. Possibly an
early union of Scotland and England and fusion of the two peoples
might have been the result and the ensuing story have been best for
civilization and humanity; but certainly Scotland’s history would not
have been either so interesting or so inspiring.
After the death of the Bruce, Stirling Castle was captured, in
succession, by Edward Balliol and for King David. When the House
of Stuart had evolved from a family of Norman barons, emigrants
from Shropshire to improve their fortunes, and, acting as stewards in
the new land, had reached royalty, Stirling Castle became the king’s
dwelling-place. For centuries afterward, it was their favorite
residence and the place of coronation of the Scottish kings. Here
James II and James V were born and here James VI of Scotland and
I of England was baptized.
It was James III who added so largely to its architecture and built
the Parliament House. It is in an inventory of the effects of this
slaughtered king that the first mention of the thistle as the national
emblem of Scotland occurs. Later this device appears on the coins
of the realm, but not until James VI is found the motto, “Nemo me
impune lacessit.”
As we entered through the gateway and walked up through the
battlemented Inner Way, we almost imagined we heard the din of
clashing swords echoing the past. The palace, built by James V, in
the form of a quadrangle, is in the southwestern part and is profusely
decorated. Yet when ornamentation and structure are compared, two
opposing systems appear to be at work. One seems to swear at the
other. The critic had better not look too closely when near, if he
wishes to enjoy harmony, for in this case, most decidedly, does
distance lend enchantment to the view. Seen from afar, the
ornaments appear rich and graceful, but when close at hand they
become grotesque. Corbels and brackets are especially suggestive
of agonizing exertion and the general effect is that of a nightmare. At
a distance, these melt into harmonious proportions, but they lose
their charm when we are close at hand. Here are hideous mixtures
of human and brute life. Many of the leering faces are simply idiotic
and the contortions of the bodies clustered together are horrible. As
has been well said, “the wildest and least becoming of the classic
legends are here embodied, without any attempts to realize beauty
of form.”
What terrible paradox, or love of the ugly, must have dominated
the taste of the sculptor, in the same age that reared some of the
glorious abbeys of Scotland! The King’s Room, which had an oaken
ceiling, with richly decorated beams, and in each partition a
magnificently carved head,—the fame of which had gone all over
Europe,—was abolished in 1777, when the roof, from its weight,
threatened to fall in.
The Douglas Room recalls, to the student of Scottish history,
some of the bloody episodes of feudalism, when, for example, a
powerful baron like William, Earl of Douglas, set at defiance the
authority of both king and law. James II, in 1452, invited the
insurgent to meet him in Stirling Castle. The earl came only after
receiving under the royal protection a safe-conduct,—which proved
that there was a lack of loyalty and much bad blood. The king first
used words of persuasion, but failing in this, he drew the dagger to
break the bonds of the confederate nobles.
Thus a Stuart king showed himself a traitor by becoming
assassin, setting a doubly bad example, which his descendants
followed only too often. They seemed to have kept the taint of their
ancestor in their blood, until the people of England had perforce to
behead one and drive out the other. The original Chapel Royal,
erected in 1594 by that Stuart who became the first English king with
the name of James, is now a storeroom and armory. It completes the
series of apartments which the tourist cares to enter and examine.
It is not the interior architecture of Stirling Castle that repays the
cultivated visitor, but rather the view from the battlements, over the
glorious and eloquent landscape of mid-Scotland. A small opening in
the parapet wall of the garden, termed the “Lady’s Lookout,”
furnishes for us our best point of view. Westward are the Highland
Mountains and between us and them lies the Vale of Menteith.
Farther toward the setting sun, robed in its azure hue, rises Ben
Lomond which mirrors itself in the loch of the same name, while Ben
Venue, Ben A’in, Ben Ledi, and the cone of Ben Voirlich, followed in
succession, the chain ending with the humbler summit of Uam-var.
All of these we saw in imagination, long ago, when, while reading
Scott, they rose in mind before us to “sentinel enchanted land.” North
and east are the Ochil Hills and the windings of the Forth, while
southward are the Campsie Hills. From the town at our feet the
turnpike road draws the eye along to the ruins of Cambuskenneth
Abbey, while reared aloft is the Wallace Monument and within view
are the Abbey Craig and the Bridge of Alan.
As we look at the old cannon, now serving for ornaments and
mementoes, we ask, Who, when this castle of Stirling was built,
could have conceived the power of artillery in our century? Scott
tells, in his picturesque way, of a cannon ball shot against a party of
rebels on their way to Edinburgh; but to-day one need only mount a
fifteen-inch rifled cannon or a sixteen-inch mortar on these ramparts,
to tumble down the whole structure by mere concussion and recoil.
Yet in the old days of catapults and smooth-bore cannon, it was quite
possible for “gray Stirling, Bulwark of the North,” to command the
point between the Highlands and the Lowlands. By stationing a party
at the Ford of Frew, near Aberfoyle, the main passage from the
mountain district was completely closed. Thus it was true that the
Forth on which Stirling Castle was situated “bridled the wild
Highlander.”
It is said that the merry King James V (1512–42) put on various
disguises, in order to ramble incognito about his realm to see that
justice was regularly administered—and also to indulge in gallantry.
Sir Walter Scott, in “The Lady of the Lake,” pictures him as the
Knight of Snowdon, who meets and kills Roderick Dhu and rewards
Ellen Douglas and Malcolm Graham.
On such occasions, the king took his name from Ballingeich, a
place near the castle. It is said that the two comic songs, “The
Gaberlunzie Man” and “The Jolly Beggar” were founded on the
success of this monarch’s amorous adventures when travelling in the
disguise of a beggar.
Around the castle is an excellent path, called “the Back Walk,”
furnished by a citizen long ago, and a stone seat has been erected
to accommodate the aged and infirm who resort to this spot. The
guide in the castle points out many another spot, around which
romantic or historical associations cluster, though as a rule these are
more interesting to a native than to a foreign tourist.
Looking at the Grey Friars’ Church, built in 1494 by James IV
and added to by Archbishop Beaton, uncle of the cardinal, we find a
type of architecture peculiar to Scotland; that is, of the later pointed
Gothic. Though contemporary with the depressed, or perpendicular,
style of architecture in England, this edifice might appear a century
older than it is. The later forms of English Gothic architecture,
however, were never adopted in Scotland, for the Scots preferred to
follow the taste of their friends in France rather than that of their
enemies in England. Here King James I of Great Britain was
crowned, John Knox preaching the coronation sermon. It was this
same James, “the wisest fool in Christendom,” under whose reign
the Bible was again translated,—then a “revised,” but now, for
centuries, the “accepted” version,—and to whom the translators
dedicated that presentation address which to Americans is positively
disgusting in its fulsome laudation.
From the fact that the nobles and gentry, on the estates adjoining
provincial towns, had their winter residence in the city also, we find
to-day, on either side of the Main Street of Stirling, what were once
ancient mansions. These are now tenanted by humbler occupants.
They show turrets and the crow-step gables, like those we meet with
so frequently in Holland. The man who reared one of these dwellings
foresaw the mutability of all things earthly and even in time the
probable fall of his house. He seemed to read that law of Providence
which raises the beggar from the dunghill and depresses the kings
from their high seats to the level of common folks—as was sung long
ago by the Virgin Mary and which under the old Manchu dynasty of
China was enacted into a law. In the Central Empire every
generation of the Imperial family stepped down one degree lower,
until, in the ninth generation, they were able to claim the status and
honors of the commoner.
In modern English, the quaint inscription on the Stirling mansion
would read:—

“Here I forbear my names or arms to fix,

Lest I or mine should sell these stones or sticks.”

Discovering, as we do, many evidences of French taste and

importation, not only at Stirling, but throughout Scotland, besides
noting so many points of contact between Scottish and French
history, we can hardly wonder why Scottish people feel so much at
home in the United States and why Americans and Scotchmen get
along so well together. American taste in dress and household
matters is certainly not English, nor were our ideas on the subjects of
art and decoration inherited from our British ancestors. Our historic
record and vocabulary, with the tendency of Americans to-day to go
to Paris rather than London for their garments, the cultivation of their
tastes, and for many of their ideas, show that the United States, like
Scotland, has been mightily influenced by French taste. We, Scots
and Yankees, are alike debtors to the land in which feudalism,
chivalry, and Gothic art, and not a few canons of taste and things of
beauty, reached their highest development.
 CHAPTER XI
OBAN AND GLENCOE—CHAPTERS IN
HISTORY

Oban is the heart’s delight for a tourist, provided he does not

arrive when the hotels are overcrowded. If one can get a room upon
the high ridge overlooking the shining waters, he will have a view
that is inspiring.
One can reach Oban either by the Caledonian Railway, by way
of Stirling and Callander, or on the water through the Crinan Canal.
This is an artificial highway, nine miles long, which was cut to avoid
the much longer passage of seventy miles round the Mull of Cantyre,
when going from Glasgow to Inverness. This shorter canal was
excavated toward the end of the eighteenth century, but its life has
not been without those accidents which we, from digging the
Panama Canal, have learned are inevitable. In 1859, after a heavy
rain, one of the three reservoirs which supply the canal, the highest
being eight hundred feet above the canal, burst. The torrent of water
rushing down the mountain-slope washed away part of the bank and
filled the canal with earth and stones for upwards of a mile.
Nevertheless, both the Crinan and Caledonian Canals pay well, and
from the surplus earnings are kept in good order.
At Oban, sheltered and with a delightful climate, we look out
upon the pretty little island of Kerrera, an old fortress of the
MacDougalls, which now serves for use as well as beauty. It not only
screens the town from the Atlantic gales, but virtually converts the
bay into a land-locked harbor.
Instead of the little village and fishing-station, which Dr. Johnson
looked upon in 1773, Oban is now a bustling town, which is very
lively and crowded in summer, withal the paradise of the tourist and
shopper. Here any pater familias, with loose change in his pocket,
when travelling with his wife and daughters, is apt to be, on entering
one of those splendid shops, as wax in their loving hands. Silks,
plaids, gay woollens, delightful things of all sorts in dry goods—
which ladies especially can so well appreciate—are here in luxurious
abundance, and at prices that do not seem to soar too high. As for
tartans, one can study in color and pattern not only a whole
encyclopædia of the heraldry of the clans, but may be shown
combinations of checks and stripes, wrought into tartans never
known in dream, use, or history, by any Highland clan. Nevertheless
these unhistorical and expensive plaids are delightful to look at and
will make “cunning” sashes and “lovely” dress goods.
Not the least of our pleasant memories of Oban are associated
with those wonderful products of the loom. Whether coming from the
splendid machinery of the great mills, built with the aid of capital and
thus reaching the highest perfection of craftsmanship joined to the
last refinement of invention and experiment, or simply the handwork
of the crofters in the distant isles, these tartans show a wonderful
evolution of national art. From many women and girls on the islands
far out at sea, without much of human society and whose dumb
friends are but dogs, cattle, and sheep, come reminders of their
industry and taste that are touching to both one’s imagination and
sympathies. Let us hope that not too much of the profits of this
cottage industry goes into the hands of those who control the trade.
Let the worker be the first partaker of the fruits of his toil.
In going up by water through Scotland’s great glen and canal, at
our leisure, we shall stop at the places worth seeing. Moreover, the
twenty-eight locks forming “Neptune’s Staircase” will enable us to
alternate pedestrianism with life on deck. First, after a ride of an hour
and a half, we come to the town called Ballaculish. It has an
imposing situation at the entrance of Loch Leven, and is not far away
from the wild glen, which has left, in its name and associations, such
a black spot on the page of Scotland’s annals during the reign of
William III.
 With our Boston and Buffalo friends, we chatted over British
politics in the past, reopening leaves of history, as we steamed to
Ballaculish, or progressed on our way on wheels to Glencoe. Except
shops and hotels, and the old slate quarries, by which the roofs of
the world are covered,—since the quarries send many million roofing
slates abroad every year,—there is little to see in this town on the
loch.
Next day we mounted the top of the stage-coach, which was
equipped with plenty of seats and was geared to fine horses, and
started for our ride into the upper and lower valleys of Glencoe,
which form a ravine about eight miles long. Accompanying us was
the mountain stream called the Cona, that is, “the dark Cona” of
Ossian’s poems, while the scarred sides of the hills show the beds of
numerous mountain torrents. These, in springtime, must display an
impressive activity. Halfway up the glen, the stream forms a little
loch. Toward Invercoe, the landscape acquires a softer beauty. Lord
Strathcona of Canada had not yet, in 1900, purchased the heritage
of the Macdonalds of Glencoe, or built his stately mansion. Yet the
wild glen is well worth seeing, either by starting from the
northeastern base or by coming up from Ballaculish. We spent a
half-hour in “Ossian’s Cave.”
All natural associations, however, whether weird or beautiful, and
even the Cave of Ossian faded into insignificance compared with the
thrilling story of the terrible massacre of February 13, 1690, when six
score soldiers, most of them of Campbell’s clan, who had a personal
spite against the Macdonalds, lived for twelve days in the glen, in
order to become all the more successful murderers in the end. After
receiving the hospitality of the villagers, they began early in the
morning, before daylight, the massacre of men, women, and
children. The work of butchery was finished by fire and the flocks
and herds were driven off.
From childhood we had heard this story. Who that has lived in
Schenectady, New York, which suffered a like fate with Glencoe,
during “King William’s War,” or who has studied, without family
prejudice, the episode of Jacob Leisler, the people’s champion on
Manhattan, but has heard of the many horrors for which William was
blamed and unjustly condemned?
What was the share of King William III in this Glencoe
transaction? The subject has been discussed in pamphlets and
books. Turning to Macaulay, the Whig historian,—since
historiography, as with Grote, for example, is often political
pamphletism,—who found his greatest hero in the Dutch Deliverer,
we are told that His Majesty knew of the Macdonalds only as a
rebellious clan who had rejected his conciliatory offers. The
Government had, in good season, fixed the day for rebellion to
cease, and in signing the order for their extirpation, His Majesty
merely meant that the existence of the clan as a predatory gang
should be broken up. Indeed, their stronghold had long been called
“a den of thieves.” William did not know that the certificates of loyalty
to the throne, made in correct form by MacIan, the chief of the
Macdonalds at Glencoe, had been delayed for a week after the date
of possible pardon, and that this certificate had been suppressed so
that when he signed the order of attack, he was ignorant of the
situation. It is not for us to give judgment in the case.
On the second visit our travel mate, Frances, on seeing the dark
glen, felt like a child entering into a haunted chamber, almost
expecting the ghosts of the Macdonalds to rise up and call for
justice.
Nevertheless, while twice visiting Glencoe, and still again and
more, when in Ireland, in 1913, I wondered why no complete life of
William III, King of England and Stadholder of the Dutch Republic,
and one of England’s best rulers, had ever been written. Pamphlets,
sketches, materials to serve, biographical chapters there are, but no
work at once scholarly and exhaustive. There is abundant material
for such a biography, and if written with historical accuracy and
literary charm, it would be not only a great contribution to literature,
but would serve to allay prejudices that still rankle. Such a work, so
greatly needed, would help to solve some of those terrible problems
generated by age-long misrule and misunderstanding, that have
made Ireland the weakest spot in the British Empire and a reproach
to English government. It may even be true to assert that the political
condition of Ireland in 1913 was one of the potent causes
precipitating war in Europe. Personally, I believe, from having
studied the life of King William, from documents in Holland and
England, that he is not responsible for one half of the cruelties with
which the Irish Nationalists, mostly of alien form of faith, charge him.
Nor does he deserve the censure and reproach which so many
Scottish writers and prejudiced Englishmen have heaped upon him.
Nor could he possibly have been the “sour” Calvinist of popular
tradition. From his reign the Free Churchmen date their freedom.
It is not at all creditable that such a hiatus exists in the library of
English biography, for the fame of William is as surely and as
constantly increasing as is that of William Pitt, Millard Fillmore, and
Abraham Lincoln. In 1914 a new statue of this royal statesman was
reared and dedicated in one of the towns of England. It was this
champion of representative government who, with sword and pen,
curbed in Louis XIV of France that same spirit of ambition which was
manifested by Philip II and has been shown by William of Germany.
The Stadtholder of Holland saved Europe to the principles of Magna
Charta and of constitutional government.
Just before our first visit to Scotland, Quandril had been reading
Scott’s story of “Aunt Margaret’s Mirror,” the scenes of which
romance are laid in Lady Stair’s house and “close.” Since that time
Marjorie Bowen has put in fiction some of the salient incidents of the
king’s life, and thus brought him to the notice of many tens of
thousands of readers to whom he had been previously but a name.
The novel entitled “The Master of Stair” treats of the Glencoe
incident, with great detail and with wonderful vividness and great
literary power. The title of the book is identical with that of the title of
Sir James Dalrymple, first Viscount of Stair, who must bear the
blame of the odious transaction, for he was undoubtedly the principal
adviser of the king, and was perhaps personally responsible for the
treachery and cruelty which accompanied the deed. It was he who
urged this method of extirpation as an effective way of repressing
rebellion in the Highlands. In spite of his great services to the State,
this stain upon his name cannot be effaced. He is buried in the
church of St. Giles in Edinburgh.
 As for Claverhouse, or “Claver’se,” as the common folks
pronounce his name,—the “Bonnie Dundee” of Scott’s rollicking
cavalry song,—he still bears with many the Gaelic name given him,
which means “Dark John of the Battles.” How highly King William
appreciated the military abilities of one whom he had known in the
Belgic Netherlands as a soldier of fortune in the Dutch army, and
who is said to have there, on one occasion, saved William’s life, is
shown, when on hearing the news of the death, at Killiecrankie, of
his friend, Claverhouse, the Viscount of Dundee, who had become
his enemy, he remarked, “Dundee is slain. He would otherwise have
been here to tell the news himself.”
At Drumclog, near Loudon Hill, where the Covenanters obtained
a temporary victory over Claverhouse, a stone has been erected to
commemorate the triumph. For many years an annual sermon, on
the 1st of June, was preached on the field. Perhaps this may even
yet be the case, but, under the shadow of the great world-war of the
twentieth century, it is probable that these local anniversaries suffer,
are ignored, or their celebrations are postponed to a happier time.
Happily for Scotland’s people, they have the gift of song, which
lightens many labors. Even on the days we visited Glencoe’s dark
ravine, we heard, toward the end of the afternoon, sounds of melody
from the toilers in the grain-fields. It came like a burst of sunshine
after a dark and cloudy day.
This inborn love of music among the Highlanders was shown
when the women reaped the grain and the men bound up the
sheaves. The strokes of the sickle were timed by the modulations of
the harvest song, by which all their voices were united. The sight and
sound recalled the line in Campbell’s poem, “The Soldier’s Dream,”
committed to memory in boyhood:—

“I heard my own mountain goats bleating aloft,

And knew the sweet strain that the corn reapers sung.”
 “They accompany in the Highlands every action, which can be
done in equal time, with an appropriate strain, which has, they say,
not much meaning, but the effects are regularity and cheerfulness,”
writes the historian of Scottish music. The ancient song, by which the
rowers of galleys were animated, may be supposed to have been of
this metrical kind and synchronous. There is an oar song still used
by the Hebridians, and we all recall the boat song in “The Lady of the
Lake,” which begins:—

“Hail to the chief who in triumph advances.”

Finely, in “Marmion,” is the story of rhythmic motion joined to

song to lighten labor, told by Fitz-Eustace, the squire, concerning the
lost battle, on which Scott comments, with an American reference:—

“Such have I heard, in Scottish land,

Rise from the busy harvest band,
When falls before the mountaineer,
On lowland plains, the ripened ear.
Now one shrill voice the notes prolong,
Now a wild chorus swells the song;
Oft have I listened, and stood still,
As it came softened up the hill,
And deemed it the lament of men
Who languished for their native glen;
And thought, how sad would be such sound,
On Susquehanna’s swampy ground,
Kentucky’s wood-encumbered brake,
Or wild Ontario’s boundless lake;
Where heart-sick exiles, in the strain,
Recalled fair Scotland’s hills again!”

Yet it is not in secular music only that the Scots excel. They have
also a rich treasury of devotion and praise, though for centuries the