Bullying prevention starts with helping young children understand and accept diversity--the earlier the better. That's why your school team needs this ready-to-use resource, a simple, fun, and effective way to promote social acceptance in the critical early years of attitude development. Perfect for K-2 classrooms, this book presents the…

Assails the problem of emphasizing "don'ts" in freshman English composition courses. Suggests remedies for negativism in teaching and calls for "delight" as a professional goal for freshman writing. Offers suggestions on selecting textbooks, maximizing student interaction in class, and bringing teacher writing into the…

A classroom discussion activity is described that uses the teacher as an impartial moderator. Students' written responses to a selected subject are organized and commented on by the group, under the teacher's supervision. Suggestions are given for course organization and sequence, extent of teacher involvement in the discussion, and logistics.…

Usual student seminar classes involve students presenting papers to the class. Alternatives to this approach are offered that maximize student audience involvement. The suggestions incorporate variations of sub-grouping, idea generation, discussion of important statements, and the refining, clarification, and evaluation of key statements. (JMD)

Data on students participating in six peer-response groups in a college writing workshop revealed the role of student writers in weaving the web of critical response during the peer group discussion. Analysis showed that the student writers engaged in four main types of verbal activity concerning their papers: (1) asking questions about their…

Verbal and nonverbal dimensions of communication are a vital part of competitive group discussion. Specific nonverbal elements that have been found useful in competitive group discussion include environment, proxemics, kinesics, objectics, and chronemics. For example, equalizing arrangements for the discussion in the best area of a room enhances…

The literary theorist Terry Eagleton believes that literary study is the study of human discourse. To build on his idea for use in the classroom, it must first be assumed that literature constitutes a dialogue between the work (and its author) and the reader. The dialogue process can be introduced in a 2- to 4-week unit through a cluster of…

This pamphlet is the second in a series of ten stemming from the view that language is central to learning, that teachers can gain insights into their work and into learning by examining the language of the classroom, and that current language theory can be the means to such insights. The pamphlet contains a description of a study designed to…

Describes the group intermix procedure, a prediscussion strategy in which students work in groups to process the content of a single book. Suggests classroom applications. (FL)

Cooperative learning is a generic classroom technique that requires students to work and talk together about academic material while learning effective interpersonal skills. This packet, prepared in conjunction with the Minnesota School Effectiveness Program, describes the benefits of cooperative learning and defines its critical attributes,…