This innovative guide shows teachers how to transform high-school English students into passionate readers with a trust-based approach that honors both student choice and teacher expertise. The authors begin with a series of reflective invitations to help teachers rediscover trust in themselves and in their students. The book offers methods for…

Describes the Viva Kids! Program, in an inner-city elementary school in Florida, in which students create and produce their own opera, engendering great enthusiasm and giving students a new sense of responsibility. (SR)

These two teaching guides, one for the novel "Summer Song," (appropriate for grades 5 through 8) and one for the novel "Libby Bloom" (appropriate for grades 3 through 6) are designed to help teachers use these children's books in interdisciplinary classroom settings. The "Summer Song" guide offers thematic links on…

This paper explores the use of conceptual themes as a framework for interdisciplinary studies with gifted students. Describes sample themes and suggested student products, as well as guidelines for brainstorming, planning activities, facilitating production, and evaluating student products. (PB)

In this instructional guide, architect Frank Lloyd Wright becomes the focus of interdisciplinary lessons intended for use with elementary level students. The text is organized in 2 sections. Section 1 provides an 8 chapter biography and study of Wright. The second section gives 21 lesson activities in foods, natural science, geometry, patterns,…

With the current emphasis on whole language, the use of children's literature as the basis for reading instruction is widespread. Theme units have been suggested as one way to provide stimulating opportunities for children to explore and learn. Whole language based literature theme units emphasize process more than product. Units are designed to…

Looks at the educational philosophy and goals of integrated thematic instruction (ITI) as used in the daily activity of a fifth-grade classroom. Shows how ITI employs research on how the human brain learns to provide students with a learning environment and an integrated curriculum that provides each student with multiple conduits of formative…

Describes how a quilting theme can provide an inclusive, engaging experience for children that also strengthens literacy, communicative, cognitive, and problem-solving skills and encourages family involvement. Outlines the phases of a quilting project, lists related classroom activities for both preschool and primary classrooms, and offers…

Based on the idea that the literary genre of historical time travel fiction can provide the reader/student with a frame of reference for studying history, this paper presents a model for thematic integration of the curriculum which uses a work of literature as its central focus. According to the paper, this thematic approach to the content areas…

With this book as a guide, elementary school teachers can build classroom themes that offer students substantive encounters with knowledge, literature, and language. The book discusses a rationale for theme teaching; an explanation of the different kinds of themes; a variety of ways in which themes can be treated in the classroom; a detailed…

Presents a cross-curricular theme unit on colors that includes a pullout poster and a resource list. Social studies activities highlight flags of the world. Science activities teach about colors of animals and the science of color. Language arts activities describe colorful language. Mathematics activities involve sorting and graphing colors. (SM)

This paper proceeds through an interdisciplinary unit of inquiry-based instruction, using the Vietnam War combat novel or memoir as a coming of age narrative, the classic thematic structure of the "bildungsroman." The paper discusses several key inquiry activities and asks readers to focus on two other key inquiry activities to help illustrate how…

Explaining that an integrated curriculum is one that makes explicit the ways in which connections between ideas are perceived, this book provides background and offers practical suggestions for implementing and managing an integrated curriculum in the classroom. The book notes that the integrated curriculum approach goes by many names--integrated…

This paper discusses and demonstrates how to use children's interests combined with children's literature to make learning easier. According to the paper, the concept is to choose an area that excites children, one where they already have a developed schemata or knowledge base, then to use children's trade books about that topic to teach the…

The integrative studies model for classroom activities that the author proposes and illustrates in this article combines the chronological focus of traditional disciplines with the thematic orientation of an interdisciplinary approach. A theme or pattern acts as the vehicle for organization. Students are presented with a variety of information…