This essay is an overview of three lessons that the author learned while teaching during the pandemic. In making adjustments to her courses, she realized the importance of purposeful care, creativity, and community-building. As the title implies, all three can be achieved by committing just thirty minutes.

The authors adopt the stance that, even though strategy use should be taught to help learners monitor their comprehension, such instruction is not sufficient to insure transfer or ownership. Further, such instruction often emphasizes only literal recall, limiting students' understanding. Therefore, the author argues that teachers should consider…

This paper is about how the transformatory pedagogical practice of popular/liberatory education can be further articulated within geography. It is based on the experiences of a third-year undergraduate course, "Autonomous Geographies", in which the author developed some of the core values of popular education, namely engaging with…

Advocates the practice of students writing journals in all of their courses. Drawing on observations of scholars like Vygotsky and Berthoff, this article discusses how the writing-to-learn movement links writing to critical thinking; spontaneous, exploratory writing enables students to create "webs of meaning" through which they can…

Using an Around the World unit to introduce students to over 30 nations, Wilson proposes "trail mix" over "melting pot" as a metaphor for multiculturalism in this article. Students kept a travel journal as they explored different cultures, and a school-wide celebration of diversity included trying out the dress, music, and language of each.…

Argues the relative merits of using in-process and retrospective journals, during and after the writing process, to empower students to explore and use their own ways of constructing knowledge to make connections as they write. (KEH)

Describes the activities in a student-centered advanced-placement English classroom, specifically methods used to foster discussion. Shows how student journals aid in generating discussion of literary works. Provides numerous concrete methods for fostering discussion. (HB)

Examines the role of reflective journals in initial teacher training courses, and, in particular, how they can enable students to develop critical independence for professional self-appraisal. (TB)

Discusses one teacher's use of ungraded reading logs in which students record quotations and their reactions to them. Points out that logs give students writing practice, involve all students in discussions, force students to read closely, and allow students to think about their reading. (ARH)

Argues that teachers can determine the instructional frameworks which can empower students to understand more about their own learning. Describes activities (learning logs, directed reading-thinking activities) that develop higher level thinking skills using writing, reading, and reasoning. Concludes that such activities facilitate students'…

"Courage Work," based on the writings of Parker Palmer, often involves the use of poetry as a vehicle for exploring and examining teachers' inner lives. This paper discusses how poetry was used with a group of undergraduate preservice elementary teachers in the Fall 2004 term, to explore how students responded to the poetry, particularly in light…

As an elementary reading specialist, Lynn Mondello Caggiano, the author of this article, often worked with students who struggled with reading and other language tasks, including writing. After working with a group of students for whom written expression was particularly difficult, Caggiano came up with the plan of having the students draw their…

Introduces the activity of student-written reading logs as a practical application of reader-response theory in English-as-Foreign-Language literature teaching. Because reader-response theory stresses the synthesis between reader and text, it is proposed that practical applications should be based on the interaction. (Author/VWL)

The reading workshop approach provided the method for creating a literate environment in an adult basic education classroom. The students were able to experience the principles of time, ownership, and response. Story maps were used to introduce the basic elements of a fictional story. Character webs were introduced to help students think of words…

Describes a coding system to motivate and assess students' journal entries as they respond to books they are reading. Argues that coded journal entries are an effective means for diagnosing reading comprehension difficulties. Contends that coding journal entries permits the students to become more conscious of their reading processes. (RS)