Argues that writing to a real audience in the form of a letter is an effective way for students to learn the importance of audience in writing. Stresses the idea that students who are intimidated by the writing process will view letter writing in a more positive light and be more amenable to the learning process. Describes a specific…

The concepts and principles of biomechanics are familiar to the teacher of physical science as well as to the physical educator. The difference between the two instructors, however, is that one knows the language of science and the other provides an experientially rich environment to support acquisition of these concepts and principles. Use of…

Pedometers are quickly becoming a common and valuable tool for physical educators. These small devices offer a valid, reliable, and feasible method to assess children's step counts. Pedometers also provide teachers and students with immediate, concrete feedback about their physical activity levels. There are three primary uses of pedometers for…

As the obesity epidemic gains a stronger foothold in today's society--as evidenced by the recently revamped U.S. dietary guidelines--it is clear that young people are not adequately educated on the necessity of physical activity and good nutrition in their daily lives. The reality is that these students' families are not adequately educating them…

The reader-response journal has proven useful in the literature-based composition class; it is also useful in the literature survey at the sophomore or junior level of college. Survey courses have a standard protocol that students have come to expect. In these classes, the teacher is an expert who lectures on historical background, trends, and…

Students cannot trace all the sources that inform who they are at a given moment, but all of them can explore a wide range of sources that inform their sense of self, clarify their values and their relationships to the world and others in it. Writing about family fits especially well into a sequence in which students narrate a personal experience,…

Research suggests that the informal language of journals is very important. Language scholars such as J. Vygotsky (1962), J. Moffell (1968, 1982), P. Elbow (1973, 1982), and M. Shaughnessy (1977) believe that human beings find meaning through exploration in their own talking language. To add to the evidence in this area, a study conducted in an…

Developed in the belief that the regular inclusion of literature in the elementary school curriculum can lead to a dynamic interaction and integration in the language arts, this booklet provides an annotated bibliography of children's literature with teaching suggestions. The activities are arranged so that they can be modified from one book to…

Almost 600 questionnaires were sent to private and public colleges and universities in a nationwide survey of their revision practices in advanced composition courses. Among the results were the following: (1) the teacher figured most powerfully in any revision activity; (2) a single mode of revision was the prevailing practice; (3) private…

One approach to teaching organization to a writing class is to subdivide the organizational processes. One subdivision recognizes that certain compositions have a predictable format--they put expected parts in predictable places. Following a format at appropriate times is a skill that should be taught, or at least insisted upon, at the beginning…

Because poetic writing as a method of discourse and as a tool for learning plays a significant role in many theoretical models of writing but is rarely used in practice, a study was conducted to examine the effects on 70 college students in an introductory psychology class of a mixture of poetic and transactional assignments on the subject of…

The Feeling Words Curriculum, a curriculum that integrates the cognitive and affective domains in one course of study, is described in this paper. The opening sections explain how "feeling words," key vocabulary terms, are used to provide the missing link from one person's life to another's. Stressing the importance of helping students…

To get a student to produce conversation freely three major language phases are set up in Beginning and Intermediate Japanese classes at the American Graduate School of International Management: controlled imitation, semi-free application and construction, and liberated expression. The training is in areas of hearing, speaking, reading, and…

This language arts lesson designed for grade five involves drama as a focal point in preparing children to write a short story similar to the one they first create through improvisation. Included are the objectives of the lesson, materials, the children's previous experience, the step-by-step procedure with accompanying teacher points, the writing…

"Aerobic writing" is a writing center strategy designed to keep students in writing "shape." Like aerobic exercise, aerobic writing is sustained for a certain length of time and done on a regular basis at prescribed time intervals. The program requires students to write at least two times a week for approximately an hour each time. Students write,…