Introducing children to poems can help them to explore their own thoughts and feelings. Selections in this list can be used with children of different ages, from preschoolers to young adults across the curriculum. (Author/AEF)

Presents five articles on using creative dramatics in early childhood education: (1) "Drama: A Rehearsal for Life" (Julia Gabriel); (2) "Fairy Tales Enhance Imagination and Creative Thinking" (Olga Sidlovskaya); (3) "Starting with a Story" (Ruth Stotter); (4) "Using Creative Dramatics to Include All…

Argues that recent events have made poetry more relevant to teaching sociology and discusses the benefits of using poetry in the sociology classroom. Provides three examples to illustrate the use of poetry as an instructional technique in a social inequality course. (CMK)

In the afterword of the re-released biography "Farewell to Manzanar," just months after September 11, 2001, the authors of the book comment that these attacks, seen by some as the Pearl Harbor of the twenty-first century, give Farewell to Manzanar a new timeliness. The authors observe that this is a dramatic change, one clearly in the…

The lesson described in this article provides a wonderful opportunity for fourth graders to integrate reading and writing into a visual art experience. After an exploration of books, students create an artist's book that uses language as respiration. Through this lesson, students explore and understand prospective content for works of art.

Three pieces of literature are used to launch mathematical investigations. The tasks provide opportunities for students to apply proportional reasoning skills, explore linear relationships, calculate a unit rate, and find the relationship between the volume of a cylinder and a cone. A poem, a short story, and a young adult novel are discussed.…

The potential of poetry for expanding possibilities in teaching, learning, and research is explored through specific examples from a poet/teacher's practice of poetry as a way of knowing and a medium for sharing knowledge.

The problem of overrepresentation of students of color within special education classrooms persists, maintaining levels of segregation based on disability and/or race within widespread schooling practices. The voices of such students and how they understand their position in the education system are noticeably absent from traditional scholarship.…

In this article, the author, who teaches at an elementary school in an area where 96% of the students live below the poverty level and many families have few or no reading materials in their homes, describes how her school has managed to create a climate in which children find joy and self-expression through the writing of poetry. The school's…

Creativity is difficult to define and a universal definition remains elusive. However, common words associated with creativity affirm that it concerns novelty and originality, hallmarks of many great and enduring texts. Students can also be encouraged to surface original ideas through constructing their own creative texts. This article outlines…

In this article, the author provides a rationale for the use of children's literature to study Mexico and to learn a framework by which to consider people around the world and the universals of culture, including principles for using books in the unit. An appendix contains a description of children's fiction and biography, nonfiction, reference…

There is a convincing literature base showing that teachers in a variety of content areas at all levels have used poetry for many years to enrich their curricula and assist in the learning of concepts, procedures, theories, and terms (e.g., Dexter, 1988; Ginocchio & Frederick, 1987; Kane, 1998, 2003; Robertson, 1997; Rodgers & Zolbrod, 1986;…

As part of an ongoing ethnographic study, this paper aims to consider the practice of poetry, "sher-o-shayari", as naturalistic peer learning among a group of heroin addicts in Yamuna Bazaar, New Delhi. By examining meanings given to "sher-o-shayari" and experiences of participating in the practice, this article makes the claim…

This paper, the first of two parts, reports the claims of a participatory qualitative research project that explores the inner self-awareness and self-presentation of adolescent girls based on excerpts from their own adolescent writings. The participants selected material from their own diaries and poetry written between 1969-1999 (ages 11-17)…

This paper, the second of two parts, reports the claims of a participatory qualitative research project that explores the inner self-awareness and self-presentation of adolescent girls based on excerpts from their own adolescent writings. The participants selected material from their own diaries and poetry written between 1969 and 1999 (ages…