Describes how the authors' collaboration has been exercised through the construction of shared language and activities based on understandings of social action. Outlines three stages of their shared professional relationship: collaborating on projects guided by shared values; role-switching in their collaborative enterprise; and collaborative…

Tips on creating a course in film making, one that will help students master basic English skills. (RL)

Describes how Michigan's English Language Arts Assessment (ELA) takes parts of the old fifth-grade writing assessment and fourth-grade reading tests, adds new elements, and wraps everything around a theme. Presents a seven-step activity to help prepare fourth graders for the ELA. Concludes that the overall impact on scores is not known. (SG)

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are transforming the priorities of the International Reading Association (IRA) and the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) to focus on preparing for the "new literacies." According to the Partnership of 21st Century Skills, "new literacy" is the ability to use ICTs to develop 21st…

Intended for secondary English teachers, the materials and ideas presented here suggest ways to use media in the classroom in teaching visual and auditory discrimination while enlivening classes and motivating students. Contents include "Media Specialists Need Not Apply," which discusses the need for preparation of media educators with…

Intended for language arts teachers, this resource guide contains general goals for a language arts curriculum for kindergarten through grade 12, objectives for varying school levels, learning activities, and selected resources designed for a wide range of student abilities. Sections of the guide focus on listening, speaking, reading, writing, and…

Describes how the author's eighth-grade students went on a yearlong search to find the literature of the twenty-first century. Describes how the students read widely, chose their own books, evaluated them according to topic questions loosely based on the theme of breaking stereotypes, kept and shared journals, and carried out projects of their…

This volume contains five essays on the uses of poetry and one poem by elementary and secondary teachers involved in a project to encourage teachers to develop the habit of scholarship as the basis for their teaching. In the first essay, "Female Poets of the First World War: A Study in Diversity for the Fifth Grade Social Studies…

Mental health in education is conceptualized from an ecological point of view. In this framework, the school as an institution must not limit its attention to what it has traditionally viewed as its own particular area of subject matter responsibility; rather, it must perceive its responsibility as relating to the whole of human experience. This…

The seven thematic units in this guide focus on communication skills, offering English teachers contemporary plans for teaching writing, listening, reading, reasoning, critical thinking, and appreciation of literary genres. The units were selected for their humanistic approaches to student language learning, combining English instruction with…

Recommends incorporating the study of peace into the established curriculum in language, literature, and social studies. Suggests teaching concepts of peace and conflict resolution by relating such concepts to students' own lives and expanding these concepts. Includes class activities such as brainstorming, experiencing conflict resolution, and…

This volume on elementary language programs is divided into four related parts. Part 1 discusses the sources of any effective language program: an understanding of the child's need for language, a knowledge of child development, and an awareness of the continuity essential to growth in language. Part 2 treats the main areas of the language…

Discusses the origin, development, and current status of a history-geography-English integrated curriculum program for eighth-grade students. Summarizes the "pluses" and "minuses" of the approach. Describes classroom activities and student projects in the program. (CFR)

This document is the syllabus of a Latin course developed by the Indianapolis Public Schools for elementary school children, based on the Latin FLES materials of the Philadelphia Public Schools. The program is based on the theory that the study of a second language will increase the student's understanding and control of his native tongue. The…