Arguably, one of those books to which the word "seminal" may be accurately applied.
—Composition Chronicle

The authors have significantly revised this edition to take account of current trends. They have dropped much of the rationale and theory, because the essentials of the approach they advocate no longer need justification-having been adopted in the last decade under such rubrics as whole language, reading in the content areas, writing across the curriculum, using language to learn, integrating the language arts, replacing basal readers with children's literature, cooperative learning and collaborative learning, process writing and process reading, writing response groups, peer editing, portfolio assessment, teacher-student conferencing, student empowerment, active learning, and critical thinking. Increasingly, verbal learning is allied to nonverbal media and arts that compete with and complement language, and all learning is placed in a social context.

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 Moffett's 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 Student-Centered Language Arts, K-12.