Suggestions for teaching reading in ways that motivate students and help them to grasp new words and concepts are given. Presentation of background material and use of vocabulary games, audiovisual aids, role playing, tape recorders, and other learning activities are discussed. (PP)

Geometry should be a frequent and familiar part of the elementary school mathematics curriculum. Exercises to help children master basic terminology and visualize shapes and geometric relationships are described. They range from a "shape bag," which teaches simple identification of figures, to more complex activities involving polyominoes and…

Three papers represent an interchange on the article in this issue by D. Meaghan and F. Casas on standardized achievement testing. The first paper calls the article unbalanced. The second paper says it is based on truth but too negative. The third paper is a response from Meaghan and Casas. (SM)

Five papers and an introduction discuss internal evaluation (IE), concentrating on the various sources of authority for IE and ways of enhancing IE authority. The roles of internal evaluators, conflicts in the evaluation process, and evaluation in a state education agency are reviewed. (SLD)

English as a second language (ESL) programs in community colleges are as diverse in the models they follow as the students they serve. This volume provides a detailed look at how faculty and administrators are tailoring their ESL programs to best serve the needs of their students and the missions of their institutions. The authors of the thirteen…

This document contains three papers from a symposium on using technology for learning that was conducted as part of a conference on human resource development (HRD). "Openness to Technology in Virtual Teams: Implications for International Human Resource Development" (Mary R. Watson, Leigh Anne Liu) reports on a study that examined the attitudes of…

What does it look like when a school uses data wisely? "Data Wise in Action", a new companion and sequel to the bestselling "Data Wise", tells the stories of eight very different schools following the Data Wise process of using assessment results to improve teaching and learning. "Data Wise in Action" highlights the…

This book focuses on one of the key questions in education: What determines a student's success? Based on twenty years of work on student success, Ray Padilla here presents two related models he has developed that both provide a framework for understanding success and indicate how it can be enhanced and replicated. The research and theory that…

The purpose of this book is to explore what happens--and what can happen--in the higher education, and even secondary school, classroom when course content meets or collides with students' religious beliefs. It also considers the impact on learning in an environment where students may feel threatened, angry, misunderstood, or in which they feel…

Suggesting many ways (not just one way) to understand what children are doing with language and literacy, this book presents essays that address the need for alternative perspectives as well as anthropological, socio-psycholinguistic, and reader response perspectives in assessing children's language and literacy. After "Introducation: What Is an…

The Roundtable on Comprehensive Community Initiatives for Children and Families is a forum in which persons involved in the current generation of community-based cross-systems can engage in discussion about their work. Roundtable members, now numbering 30, meet biannually to share lessons they are learning and to work on common problems they face.…

Noting that, contrary to the first conference, disagreements began to surface among the conference participants of the second conference, this proceedings contains papers presented at the second conference on the teaching of grammar (except for a preconference workshop and one paper). Papers in the proceedings are: "Keynote: Finding Reasons…

This "Hot Topic Guide" on mythic-archetypal methods for the language arts (which address students' inner lives to promote sharing of feelings, intuition, and imagery production in the classroom) is designed for implementation either in a workshop atmosphere or through individual study. Included are suggestions for using the guide as a…

Quality in distance education and open learning is the theme of this collection of five papers. The first is a compilation of outlines of Charles Sturt University (New South Wales, Australia) innovative teaching projects contributed by project leaders or team members. Quality initiatives are described in a range of disciplines. In seeking to…

This collection of four short articles presents teaching strategies to enrich the social studies curriculum and promote students' sense of citizenship. Diana Hess outlines how cooperative learning stimulates the skills necessary for effective participation in a democratic society. By taking an active role in their own education and respecting the…