Discusses concepts underlying media literacy programs; how media literacy fits into the language arts curriculum; and the strands of a media literacy curriculum: viewing and representing. Provides models of the viewing (decoding) and representing (encoding) triangles. Includes a third-grade lesson plan developing skills in analyzing holiday season…

Discusses the Media Awareness Network, a Web site established by the National Film Board of Canada and designed to provide the latest media-related news; information about media education workshops and other media Web sites; subject specific teaching units; and updates on government policy related to violence, pornography, copyright, and hate…

Describes a four-volume reference set for elementary and middle school students called "The Middle Ages: An Encyclopedia for Students" edited by William Chester Jordan. Provides a sample lesson which includes library media skills objectives, curriculum objectives, grade levels, resources, instructional roles, activity and procedures for…

Provides a descriptive list of web sites that can provide teachers with a good starting place for Internet exploration. Includes: Big Sky Science Gopher menu; Dem Dry Bones; EE Link: Environmental Education on the Internet; Energy Quest; ERIC Science Gopher; Exploratorium Science Snackbook; and Newton's Apple. Twenty sites are described, with web…

Provides language arts teachers with specific techniques to help content-area teachers get more writing into their classrooms. Suggests that some of these techniques might be helpful to language arts teachers themselves, especially in getting students to think about learning. (TB)

Describes a hands-on activity, Hitting the Mark, which is found in the "Healthy Water, Healthy People Water Quality Educators Guide" in terms of its objectives, materials, background, procedures, activities, and assessment. (KHR)

Discusses how teachers can incorporate musical composition into their classrooms by teaching students about aleatory, or chance, music. Provides a definition of aleatory music and provides various composing techniques, focusing on aleatory music. Includes lesson plans using aleatory music, such as the "Mozart Model" for grades 4-12. (CMK)

Includes three lesson plans. Outlines a journalism yearbook project designed to give students the necessary skills to shoot effective photos and to process prints for student publications. Reports on a project involving advanced photography students in the creation of unique photographic images with the electronic flash unit. Describes a teaching…

Defines terrestrial and Jovian planets and provides directions to obtain planetary data from the National Space Science Data Center Web sites. Provides "number-crunching" activities for the terrestrial planets using Texas Instruments TI-83 graphing calculators: computing volumetric mean radius and volume, density, ellipticity, speed,…

Proposes a new type of collaboration between academic librarians and ESL (English as second language) instructors where the instructor teaches the course after collaborating to match information literacy and ESL objectives and build them into the ESL curriculum. Discusses library instruction and the new course design, and provides sample lesson…

Describes the Constructural Multi-Modalities Model for MST (math, science, and technology) Inquiry Units. The MST Model uses an interdisciplinary and constructivist approach and allows teachers to create lesson plans that: integrate MST in tandem; adhere to local, state, and national standards; and actively engage students' differentiated learning…

This article provides eight steps to academic reading success for English language learners, including the following: 1) set a purpose; 2) determine the scope of the reading; 3) fill in the holes; 4) recognize what you know and don't know; 5) integrate your ideas with the reading; 6) determine the author's perspective; 7) think critically; 8)…

To optimize professional preparation and ensure the transition of positive attitudes about teamwork from education to practice, educators must offer students opportunities to participate in well-designed, positive group activities grounded in theory. This paper presents an activity that provides class project groups a chance to work through the…

Describes how one teacher provides minimally structured lessons that encourage senior high school students to carry their learning beyond the classroom. Describes units on business communication, research, British literature, and independent reading. (MG)

Illustrates a fifth grade teaching unit on international economics. Gives suggestions for use at the lower elementary and primary grades and points out that incorporation of economics into the elementary education curriculum can produce economically literate citizens in a cost-effective way. (GG)