Good spelling is a result of good teaching. And good teaching requires a full understanding of what spelling is--not the rote learning of strings of letters, but a sociolinguistic construction, each word a wonderful tapestry of meaning and history. The teaching of all the linguistic threads that weave through words is key to equity of outcomes in…

In this photo elicitation assignment, each student must take, select, and interpret a picture about a social issue that he/she has learned about in class. The student must then craft either a sensory poem, or answer the SHOWeD questions as designed by Shaffer and modified by Wang, which facilitates the student's interpretation of the picture. As a…

Children's ways of learning are as different as the colors of the rainbow. All children have different personalities, preferences and tastes; they all have a certain way they prefer to learn. Teachers and parents need to be aware of and value these differences. Children's brains develop faster from birth to age three than any other time, and more…

An important aspect of science education involves helping students learn to read and communicate scientific information and arguments. In this note, I would like to share a resource that I have come across which I have found to be a useful tool for helping students improve those skills, learn content material, and acquaint them with a great…

The brain is a complex organ with an intellectual capacity that is unique to humans. For educators, it is wise to study the brain's many attributes and how it functions to help guide, inform, and improve teaching practice. Learners' brains are particularly sensitive to certain kinds of stimuli--that is social, physical, cognitive, and emotional…

It is imperative that teachers have the knowledge and resources to support children who are deaf and use a cochlear implant in general education classrooms. The recommendations presented in this article provide teachers with the information necessary to promote a child's academic progress, communication needs, and social development. In order to…

To address the needs of the high population of students with learning disabilities at their school, the author and a colleague created an inclusion science class that focuses on active, hands-on science. The course prepares students of various learning abilities for the state-mandated end-of-course biology assessment. Many of their students have…

As Barry Brummett (1984) has argued, the purpose of rhetorical theory is pedagogical--providing students with resources for understanding the rhetorical transactions that they encounter every day. An understanding of the implications of ideology is necessary for advanced communication students. Kellner and Share (2005) contend that this is…

Tracy Logan and Tom Lowrie argue that while little attention is given to visual imagery and spatial reasoning within the Australian Curriculum, a significant proportion of National Assessment Program--Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tasks require high levels of visuospatial reasoning. This article includes teaching ideas to promote visuospatial…

Special education professionals and teachers of students with autism face many behavioral and instructional challenges. In addition to teaching content to a demanding population, teachers are often faced with particular circumscribed and special interests that often take up time and divert attention from the students. It is an educators job to…

This article explains how the sky would look from different locations, specifically from other locations within our solar system. Answers to the following questions are addressed: Do the constellation patterns we see from Earth look different from another planet in our solar system? What would the Sun look like from greater distances? (Contains 2…

Teachers of gifted students often are challenged to find ways to stimulate critical thinking and problem-solving skills. School chess clubs are one way of meeting that challenge. This article poses how games such as chess affect learning and gifted students. Two detailed strategies for teaching chess to students beginning in kindergarten are…

This article, the second of a two-part series, features 11 teaching innovations presented at the 2014 Association for Business Communication annual conference. These 11 assignments included leadership and other-focused communication--detecting communication style, adaptive communication, personality type, delivering feedback, problem solving, and…

A simple low cost demonstration experiment is performed using common apparatus in order to show various flexural patterns and to give a dynamical measure of Young's modulus. (Contains 4 figures.)

Could you use a superhero to teach reading, writing, critical thinking, and problem solving? While seeking the answer, secondary language arts teacher Maureen Bakis discovered a powerful pedagogy that teaches those skills and more. The amazingly successful results prompted her to write this practical guide that shows middle and high school…