In this lesson, students will explore daily life in the 13 original British colonies and its influences in the late 1700s for two families in different colonies--Delaware and Massachusetts. The lesson asks students to become historical detectives and learn to gather information from artifacts and make inferences about the lives and time they…

Children can learn to express themselves through the performing arts in constructive ways. Theater, specifically, employs the use of all dimensions of learning. In this lesson, students will engage in basic theater techniques for creating a character through movement and voice. The lesson, lasting 5 class periods, introduces them to guidelines for…

The realities of slavery and reconstruction hit home in oral histories from the Library of Congress. In this unit of study, students research slave narratives from the Federal Writers' Project and describe the lives of former African slaves in the United States--both before and after emancipation. From varied sources, students can sample the…

This paper introduces a research-based model of sheltered instruction that promotes teaching practices that make teachers more effective in promoting the learning of limited-English-proficient (LEP) students. The model is instantiated in an observation instrument, the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP). The SIOP may be used as part…

This document contains teacher and student materials for a course on brakes in the diesel technology curriculum. The course consists of 12 units organized in three sections. The three units of the introductory section cover: (1) brakes; (2) wheel bearings and seals; and (3) antilock brake systems. The second section, Hydraulic Brakes, contains the…

Problem-based learning (PBL) has great potential for inspiring K-12 learning. KaAMS (Kids as Airborne Mission Scientists), an example of PBL, was designed to help teachers inspire middle school students to learning science, math, technology, and geography. The children participate as scientists investigating environmental problems using NASA…

Aligned with its 1998 standards for first and second language learning, Alberta Learning has published lesson plans that aim for a closer relationship between learning and evaluation. Each volume in this series presents a specific task for students that involves planning, carrying out and evaluating their work. The task for seventh grade students…

Arguing that picture books have much to offer students in the upper grades (including middle school and even high school students), this book discusses using picture books to stimulate students' thinking in a variety of topic areas. Chapter 1, Using Picture Books in the Middle School To Stimulate Thinking, introduces the topic of using picture…

Using this inquiry-based process allows the teacher and librarian to assign mystery topics to individual students so they can conduct independent research on high-interest subjects. The book provides the tools and strategies teachers and librarians need to help students think and rethink methods of gathering and organizing information to solve…

This description of the plan of civic education in the Indianapolis elementary schools has been prepared because of a growing, general interest in the subject, and because of the numerous inquiries as to existing methods of organized elementary civic training. The Indianapolis teachers and school authorities would be the last to claim that they…

Describes activities for grades 4-6 to help students develop a base of knowledge and attitudes from which they can approach the problem of world hunger. Activities include studying nutrients; food groups; where food is grown; why and where people are hungry; and how to help solve the world food problem. (CS)

Four lessons discuss how industrialization altered individual lives and view it in the context of growing interdependence and change. Includes stories about foreign as well as American workers for comparative purposes. (Author/CK)

Describes how teachers in Alaska are using the Natural Support Matrix and Cooperative Learning Planning System to fully include junior high students with disabilities. The model involves collaborative teaming by teachers, development of a student's individual natural support matrix which correlates general and special education services with the…

Describes the Teaching Decisions Simulation, a program that allows participants to make decisions regarding lesson plan activities and student and teacher spatial arrangement or interactions. Postlesson feedback includes variables such as completion time and performance measures. Experienced teachers exhibited more deliberation in completing the…

Argues that use of theme-based curricula for preschool children is developmentally appropriate, provides an integrated approach to teaching and learning, enhances learning, and yields high levels of achievement. Provides supporting data from brain research and learning psychology. Includes a sample thematic unit and guidance for creating thematic…