Describes a lesson plan designed for first- through fifth-grade students in which they made their own impressionist-style artworks. Explains that the lesson was introduced with a discussion on Claude Monet, his many art prints, and the impressionist genre. Explores the differences between things of nature and man-made objects. Notes materials and…

Considers special needs students' interactions with high stakes testing and ways in which teachers try to improve the testing environment. Makes a suggestion for different types of evaluations including a semester-ending project that permits choice and engages students in interdisciplinary lessons. (SG)

Describes a successful unit on poetry, characterized by collaborative planning, creation of the collection of poems used as the text, variation of the approaches and types of assignments, use of recorded music and poetry collected, use of local poets who read and performed for the students, online sharing and critiquing of students' poetry, and a…

Starting in March 2005, the SAT, taken annually by more than 1.4 million college-bound students, will undergo its most significant change since 1994, when the College Board, which sponsors the test, first allowed calculators into test rooms, added open-ended math questions, and eliminated antonyms and added more critical-reading passages in the…

Dissatisfied with his method of teaching composition to high school seniors, Joseph M. Shosh sought ways to move from teaching as transmission to teaching as transaction. Asking students to use a dialogic discourse diary resulted in improved thinking and writing. He offers the assignments he gave and documents students? reactions and growth.

This study examined the time course of typing in prelingually and profoundly deaf as well as hearing individuals. Both groups of participants performed a written picture naming task and a written pseudoword task. Keystroke timing measurements from the written picture naming task revealed that the deaf as well as the hearing group were…

This article describes a series of assignments that models the process of writing a manuscript for publication. While completing the assignments, students worked to improve their writing as they graphed, interpreted, and explained patterns in data from a local river. They reviewed published articles and each other's papers to become more critical…

Tremendous changes are taking place in the world which certainly influence the system of education, and teacher education too cannot remain immune to these global changes. Information Technology (IT] is affecting teachers, individuals and society. Digital learning has opened the doors of classrooms and made knowledge accessible even for those…

At the University of Akron, the administration decided to segregate the students previously called "provisional" from the "regular" population. As an open-access institution, the university directly admits only approximately 15 percent of the students to a program of study. The vast majority of students start in University College and transfer to…

The Science Foundation Programme (SFP) at the University of KwaZulu Natal, Pietermaritzburg attempts to address past educational inequalities by providing disadvantaged matriculants with the skills, resources and self-confidence needed to embark on their tertiary studies. Students entering the Programme typically adopt a surface approach to…

In a secondary school mathematics teaching methods course, a research team engaged 22 preservice secondary teachers (PSTs) in designing and posing tasks to algebra students through weekly letter writing. The goal of the tasks was for PSTs to elicit responses that would indicate student engagement in the mathematical processes described by NCTM…

This article explores the effectiveness of writing to help nurse-learners develop critical thinking in an asynchronous, online learning environment. The formal written assignments of students in an online nursing health assessment program were analyzed for evidence of critical thinking according to Johns' Model of Structured Reflection (Johns,…

This case study involved 3 middle school students in an assessment of the influence of self-reflection on general academic performance. It was hypothesized that increased self-reflection would have a positive influence on academic performance as measured by grades on tests, writing assignments, and homework. The participants were ages 13.4, 13.5,…

The concept of student voice has become a powerful metaphor in college-level writing class. In this article, the author enthusiastically invites her students to activate their "voices." But like healthy self-concept or freedom or individuality, voice only comes from within. It cannot be given, imposed, and "taught." Too many students seem hesitant…

Focused freewriting, broadly defined as writing without stopping and editing about a specific topic, has been viewed and used as a powerful tool for developing student writing in a wide spectrum of educational contexts. This study aimed to further explore the use of focused freewriting in the context of promoting students' academic skills…