Throughout this article, we explore how multiple arts-based learning strategies (ABLS) helped subvert traditional literacy methods. We ask two large questions: (1) How, as critically conscious educators, might we break down inherent institutionalized oppressive structures and have an education of liberation and freedom? (2) What can we say about…

In Chapter 3 of Moby Dick, Ishmael, in a "towering rage," questions his landlord concerning Queequeg, the savage "purple rascal" harpooner, he has yet to meet. "What sort of bamboozling story are you telling me?" he nervously asks after learning that Queequeg is peddling shrunken heads-- and on the Sabbath, no less…

Project "Green Footprint" is a local community environment project created by fifth-grade students to remind the citizens of their school (and Earth) to tread lightly on Mother Nature's creations. The students chose to focus on the air quality outside the school, specifically the carbon emissions produced by idling cars. Students complete Internet…

There is a need to establish and nurture a relationship between urban and suburban students and the natural world. This relationship needs to be personal and immediate. They need to see the wilder life that survives and sometimes flourishes in "their" world--not miles away in the hills and mountains or hidden beneath the sea, but outside…

Five middle school teachers are among the few people wandering around the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, squinting at labels describing the plants that will bloom soon. The author and her colleagues are on a reconnaissance mission, trying to plan an interdisciplinary field trip for the seventh grade. They represent different departments--science, math,…

Challenges the identification of literacy with intelligence and abstract reasoning ability. Suggests nonverbal projects as a way of broadening the definition of intelligence in the English classroom. A bibliography is included. (DF)

Shows how student journals can be used in a variety of subject areas to focus both student and teacher on the learning process inherent in writing. (RL)

Describes an experiential lesson plan for using garden snails in secondary English. Shows how the observation of snails can be tied into reading, writing, and dramatics activities. (DF)

Describes the interdisciplinary approach used by a language arts teacher and a social studies teacher to teach seventh graders about the Great Depression. Discusses how students prepare interviews, radio plays, and newsreels. (SR)

Describes a secondary English unit on the rural heritage of the United States that sharpens knowledge and skills in the humanities, including English, art, music, and history. Rural music, magazines and literature, historical materials and biographies, and field trips are suggested. A bibliography of materials is included. (DF)

Describes a unit involving seventh grade students in an investigation of another culture that helps students learn how to appreciate a different culture and that allows them to practice their language arts skills across the curriculum. (EL)

Describes a class activity in which students gathered pictures and wrote and recorded narration relating to the first successful flight by the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Notes that, in the process of gathering pictures, the students were motivated to read the information accompanying the pictures. (RS)