This article will provide a guide for physical educators to implementing play-based learning within their curriculum, including how play-based learning can be implemented, how to create a conducive environment that allows for play-based learning, and examples of activities that involve play-based learning.

Early childhood and elementary music teachers face particular challenges when including children with special needs in the music classroom. Children with autism act out and misbehave not because they are autistic, but because their fears and anxieties are so great. Knowing that children with autism and other neurological disorders have distinct…

Some high achievers are not as easy to engage. Sometimes motivating high achievers is "a matter of being more sensitive to what they are interested in," says Don Ambrose, a professor of education at Rider University in New Jersey. But too often classrooms are not set up for that kind of sensitivity. Research shows that schools are…

Notes that for children of diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, schooling brings an immersion into a world not just unfamiliar but uncomfortable, in which rules governing participation may be in conflict with cultural values. Proposes that culturally responsive instruction brings students of diverse backgrounds to high levels of literacy…

Discusses what happens when students and teachers are encouraged to use multiple ways of knowing in mediating their experiences with the world. Suggests that a good language arts program expands the communication potential of all learners through the orchestration and use of multiple ways of knowing for purposes of ongoing interpretation and…

Presented is the stage-set design approach to classroom environment, in which the classroom is designed as a stage so that learning experiences and situations may become life-related and purposeful. (BD)

This illustrated book was written to encourage and share with teachers the means to develop independent learners in their classrooms. It is suggested that teachers start learning activities by scheduling a daily period when children may freely use materials and interact with others. One section of the book is devoted to organizing and helping…

Notes that those cross-cultural classroom exchanges that yield the most energy, intensity, and recognizable change are those centered upon students' simple needs, feelings, and fears. Uses such exchanges as the focus for wide-ranging questions about how best to modify language arts curricula and teaching to meet students' needs. (HTH)

This paper addresses how educators can encourage elementary-age children to develop critical thinking skills and creativity while also meeting educational standards and maintaining learning goals. The paper notes that a comprehensive curriculum: (1) honors the role of all participantsteachers, children, and parents; (2) engages children in…

Discusses four different paths that literature can take: the positive path; the negative path; the creative path; and the transformative path. Concludes that a literature curriculum that invites transformation, justice, and healing to happen points in stark contrast to how truly inadequate standards-based, test-driven education is to addressing…

Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences theory has exciting implications for planning new curricula, especially for children with dyslexia. These children have been "educated" in a system that has failed them. Gardner's theory allows an open-ended approach to assessing dyslexic children's intelligence. Understanding the eight…

A caring reading curriculum is needed to help children learn to care for others while promoting academic success in reading, thereby satisfying both the academic and social purposes of education. In developing or evaluating a caring reading curriculum, certain aspects of the program must be considered. These aspects are classroom environment,…

A learning center is a designated area of the classroom where resources are provided to guide individuals and groups of children in specific activities. The rationale, suggestions for themes, and design and construction of the learning center are examined. (Author/DE)

Describes development of a process-oriented writing curriculum that provides continuity through the use of portfolios passed on to the students' next teacher and a classroom atmosphere that celebrates writing as a natural part of students' lives. (HTH)

Examines the prevailing myth that children's well-being increases through consumerism. Addresses the scope of child-focused consumption, negative impact of child-oriented consumerism on child development, creation of an imagination-stifling environment; and the relationship between instant gratification and avoidance of challenges. Concludes that…