Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine undergraduate elementary education teacher candidates' abilities to successfully integrate social justice teaching into their interdisciplinary ELA and social studies thematic units. The projects were analyzed to determine the extent to which, if any, social justice education has been addressed.…

"Teaching Spiritual Themes to African American Children: A Picture Book Approach" is a research project that used picture books to teach the four spiritual themes, 1.) love, 2.) forgiveness, 3.) kindness, and 4.) perseverance. This project was conducted in an after school program at Fifth Baptist Church, on Cary St. in Richmond, VA. The…

Teachers can give children a learning experience by (1) providing a concept; (2) selecting an activity; (3) generating a learning task; (4) formulating a cognitive challenge; (5) creating small groups; (6) debriefing the meanings learned; and (7) using the feedback to modify the original idea. (DG)

Strategies for choosing themes for theme teaching include limiting subject areas, integrating skills, balancing teacher- and student-generated themes, avoiding cutsey activities, drawing from various arenas, avoiding overly long themes, avoiding yearlong or schoolwide themes, understanding the themes, repeating themes, and borrowing themes from…

Teaching techniques for primary grades exemplify how children's natural enthusiasm can be used to produce a meaningful first experience in learning about the law. (Author/KM)

Shares two methods for teaching themes (giving and jealousy are used as examples) to elementary students. (MG)

Law-related education works best when teachers abandon manuals and prepackaged teaching modules for teaching strategies that tap each student's prior knowledge and relevant life experiences. Ten themes are suggested, along with six teaching components (knowledge competencies, motivating and learning activities, curriculum correlation, relation to…

Offers connections and resources about how to build a literature-based curriculum that goes beyond just the use of fiction. Provides an annotated list of 90 books on the topics of the cycle of seasons, weather cycles, cycles of the universe, and life cycles to use in connecting fiction and nonfiction. (MG)

Suggests using themes of interest to integrate the curriculum and provide literacy activities instead of studying separate lessons on particular skills. (MG)

Offers four essays containing suggestions from classroom teachers on using big books for sharing reading experiences; poems or paragraphs; an interdisciplinary unit of study for first graders around Tomie de Paola's "The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush"; and comparing film and text to build critical comprehension. (SR)

This Digest focuses on the method of teaching foreign languages in Kindergarten through Grade 8 using content-based instruction. In this approach, the foreign language is used as the medium for teaching subject content, such as mathematics or social studies. In content-based instruction, students become proficient in the language because the focus…

An inventive first grade curriculum using a school construction project illustrates the fundamentals of the Mid-California Science Improvement Program, based on Susan Kovalik's integrate, thematic learning model. This cooperative learning program does not ask teachers to add yet another subject, but makes science the ingredient uniting all other…

This report summarizes and compares the views of six experts in art education concerned with teaching art for students' conceptual understanding at the elementary level. Two art education professors and three public school art specialists who teach art at the elementary level engaged in comprehensive written exercises to address issues related to…

Suggestions are given on how to write stories for students, taking into consideration plot, vocabulary development, and interest levels. (JH)