For four years, Pat Paugh, a university teacher educator, and Mary Moran, a teacher researcher, collaborated on action research by systematically studying literacy development connected to the latter's third-grade community gardening and urban farming curriculum. Their goal was to support an existing classroom culture that valued…

This article describes a writing partnership that involved university preservice teachers and ninth grade students enrolled in an integrated social studies/language arts class. While the high school students found the experience exciting and satisfying, the preservice teachers expressed anxieties and concerns as they endeavored to foster academic…

Middle grades teachers should create meaningful learning activities involving stimulating literature and interesting composition prompts. This article describes a unit in which eighth graders read short stories by Edgar Allan Poe. Using multiple learning and teaching approaches, they expanded their vocabularies, responded artistically to "The…

Generally speaking, a portfolio is a systematic collection of a variety of student projects or artifacts, collected over time, that reflect a student's developmental progress made in one or more areas. For the class, "Portfolio Development in Reading and Language Arts Courses" (EDUC 508 at Saint Joseph College), the portfolio will…

This second installment of an article on a collaborative project involving high school and elementary students focuses on cooperative learning techniques with computers in language arts. Topics include classroom design, hands-on learning, new teaching and learning perspectives, sample assignments, the down side of technology, and recommendations.…

Describes a special language arts/social studies unit inspired by students' response to a Channel One newscast about starving Somalians. Letter-writing and fund-raising activities helped these middle-level students make closer connections with the world, construct powerful meanings around their own concerns and those of society, integrate self and…

Describes one fifth grade teacher's approach to the teaching of U.S. history. Reveals that the teacher limited breadth of coverage in favor of an approach that sought to connect themes and facts. Explains that the teacher incorporated language arts teaching, storytelling, writing assignments, and cooperative learning activities. (SG)

The 14 lessons in this guide are intended to enhance elementary students' personal correspondence skills. The activities encourage creative personal interdisciplinary expression in language arts, visual arts, social studies, science, and mathematics through lessons that can be presented independently or integrated into existing lesson plans. Each…