Describes ideas that can help teachers organize activities around the subject of trees. The ideas include searching books and Internet sites for pictures and drawings of trees, creating stories with trees, planning field trips, inviting experts to share their knowledge and skills, exploring current events related to trees, and finally, creating…

Uses examples of curriculum development efforts undertaken within a government-funded pilot project to illustrate how teachers can take advantage of curriculum development resources and opportunities. Addresses teacher motives and satisfactions in curriculum development and ways in which administrators might take account of those feelings to…

Offers a lesson that introduces students in grades seven-nine to a contemporary object which questions the definitions of furniture, painting, and sculpture. Shows how Rodney Alan Greenblat draws upon childhood memories for creative inspiration. Calls for students to produce an art piece that works as painting, furniture, and sculpture. (LS)

Describes the National Bicentennial Competition on the Constitution and Bill of Rights, a Center for Civic Education project. Includes two project lessons which focus on the U.S. Constitution as an instrument to protect individual freedom at the middle school level, and feature the founding philosophy of the Constitution at the high school level.…

Outlines the origin of World Environment Day, June 5, and the concurrent development of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya. Outlines UNEP's activities and publications. Includes classroom activities on the environment, conservation, population, food, the United Nations, and the objectives of World…

Presents dimensions of the drug issue through four lesson strategies for middle and secondary students. "Planning to Solve a School Drug Problem" focuses upon school responsibility. "Assessing Public Opinion: Views You Can Use" introduces surveys. "Conduct and Actions" simulates a drug possession case. "Case Study: Parents, Drugs, and Neglect"…

Provides information concerning the diversity of women's lifestyles who lived on the U.S. frontier during the 19th century. This excerpt contains a lesson plan and teaching strategies for the study of Black women who went West. The larger work is an attempt to focus upon neglected areas of women's frontier experiences and includes an extensive…

Discussion of critical thinking skills focuses on the academic library's role in teaching critical thinking skills based on experiences with a library resources course at Louisiana State University. Teaching techniques are discussed, sample lessons are described, and evaluation of students' research papers and student retention of skills are…

Investigates the possibility of conducting adult education courses based on the Accelerated Learning (A.L.) methodology and of evaluating its advantages and disadvantages vis a vis more traditional methods. It is not clear that the A.L. materials produce better results. Further study is needed to evaluate the effectiveness of the entire A.L.…

Discusses the use of suggestopedia and accelerated learning (AL) techniques in a 10-week French-as-a-Second-Language course for 13 adult learners. Course organization, lesson plans, and results, focusing on the effectiveness of AL techniques in short-term courses, are examined. (two references) (MDM)

Discusses the promotion of language and literacy skills in young children through the use of computers. Describes specific courseware that can be used to develop vocabulary and writing skills. Includes sample lessons that demonstrate how courseware can be effectively integrated into a school curriculum and provides a checklist for teachers to use…

Describes how teachers can improve introductory soil science courses by applying concepts taught in the classroom to actual field situations. Presents a specific example of a field exercise designed to illustrate soil properties and processes with respect to their environmental settings. (11 references) (Author/MCO)

Evaluation of a metacognitive model designed to promote cooperative instruction among 10 regular education and 10 special education preservice teachers found slight changes in attitudes and perceptions. The model included opportunities for cooperative prelesson planning and postlesson evaluations by prospective teachers, and actual delivery of…

Uses a "teaching as problem solving" perspective to examine the components of metacognition underlying the instructional practice of seven experienced and seven beginning secondary-school mathematics teachers. Data analysis of observations, lesson plans, videotapes, and audiotapes of structured interviews suggests that the metacognition of…

Discusses the advantages to considering writing an integral part of learning English as a Second Language at all grade levels, offering a day-by-day lesson sequence on the topic of courage that affords ample opportunity for writing and for class discussion to share and evaluate the writing. Suggestions for each day's classwork are followed by a…