Teachers have long surrounded young students with a print-rich environment within the classroom, but the purpose of this lesson is to bring the print-rich environment of the community into the classroom through the use of environmental print, enabling emergent readers to delight in the realization that they are indeed readers. During 10 to 20…

The reading program described in this lesson plan outlines a "just for fun" book club that was a student-organized, student-driven reading experience that built community in the classroom and encouraged students to read independently, taking responsibility for their literacy learning. During 5 to 15 minute lessons every other day,…

This "weekend news" writing activity gives students the opportunity to recall personal events and write about them. The writing is done in a nonthreatening environment, which helps students develop writing fluency and apply what they already know about spelling and other language conventions. Students create a set of criteria with which to…

A Peace Corps workshop for prospective language teachers is reported. The workshop's goals were to train a team of teacher candidates in effective language instruction methods, Peace Corps organization and operations, cross-cultural skills, and adult second language instruction techniques. Workshop content covered: discussion of the teacher…

This reference guide was developed by surveying student teachers, substitute teachers, returning teachers, emergency credential teachers, and teacher educators on what they wanted to see in a teaching reference. Samples of lesson units, themes, and communication with parents are provided, along with classroom-tested strategies. The 12 chapters…