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…

An innovative program developed and implemented at Montclair State College in New Jersey was designed to maximize students' writing potential within the framework of course requirements across the curriculum. Based on the assumption that the written expression of ideas and the critical thinking skills associated with writing are fundamental to all…

Shakespeare's plays are the apex of western achievement in the humanities and as such afford a highly fertile mechanism for teaching gifted elementary and secondary students. Studying Shakespeare facilitates the understanding of an earlier form of the English language and illustrates the evolutionary nature of language. Aside from a sense of…

The teaching activities presented in this document focus on teaching students the language of mathematics through reading and writing. The first activity teaches students about space, time, numbers, and languages by having them give directions to a robot, compare distances traveled, read a map, and write a story with illustrations about a robot.…

These three occasional publications contain the following articles: (1) Varieties of Interdisciplinary Approaches in the Social Sciences (Raymond C. Miller); (2) Five Arguments against Interdisciplinary Studies (Thomas L. Benson); (3) What Are Transdisciplinary Principles? (Robert W. Winquist); (4) Can Progress toward Interdisciplinary Education…

Noting the growing interest in how writing activities might complement current teaching techniques and improve learning in mathematics, this paper presents a progress report on the use of writing assignments in freshman precalculus courses at a Minnesota university. The paper first presents a rationale for this teaching technique and the original…

In a holistic approach to education, the various parts are related to the whole in such a way that education is no longer fragmented and unrelated to the larger society. Because it is difficult to define what is meant by the term "holistic," educators have been hesitant to use such an approach even though a growing body of literature supports the…

Four different approaches to the teaching of U.S. history--chronological, topical, interdisciplinary, and problems--are presented. The purpose is to help students in grade 11 learn about and appreciate the country's history, heritage, beliefs, and institutions. The first approach presented is chronological, is in outline form, and contains nine…

An undergraduate "Anthropology Through Science Fiction" honors course is described. Participation in the course was by invitation only and included both anthropology and non-anthropology majors. By using science fiction, non-anthropology students quickly became familiar with weekly topics and anthropology majors found the readings a new way to…

Guided Design has great potential as a teaching/learning method for Women's Studies courses. The Guided Design process is organized around the learner's efforts to come up with solutions to a series of carefully designed, open-ended problems. The problems are selected by the teacher according to the skills and subject matter to be learned. The…

A few examples of the different ways in which educators from kindergarten through graduate school can teach future studies in all subject areas are presented. Suggestions include games, group projects, and many classroom activities. (Author/RM)

Unified Science and Mathematics for Elementary Schools (USMES) is a reality-oriented approach to teaching emphasizing activities in which students define and solve their own problems. Examples of problems and activities found in schools using USMES guides are presented as well as a brief history of the project. (JP)

The ten selections in this journal were among papers presented at two scholarly meetings on research on film conducted at the Center for Twentieth Century Studies. The papers deal with the following topics: narrative patterns in "Only Angels Have Wings"; "King Kong" and the ideology of spectacle; introducing narratology to film students via…

Describes 17 activities which are aerospace oriented and yet provide an interdisciplinary approach to learning. Some of the activities described involve paper airplanes, parachutes, model rockets, etc. (BR)