This paper describes a project implemented in one first grade classroom to incorporate learning strategies in the process of group development of curriculum planning and development of instructional activities. The teacher used dialogue, coaching, modeling, questioning, and reinforcement with the students to make prominent the language and…

A teacher who had directed a K-12 language arts program at the Alamo Navajo Reservation in Magdalena, New Mexico employed problem-solving skills that involved the affective domain as well as the sensory-motor areas important to education even in older children. This teacher's classrooms are heterogeneously grouped. A thematic approach is used…

A year-long thematic unit for fifth-graders combines critical thinking and whole language frameworks to help students retain, understand, and make active use of knowledge within and across domains. Using systematic instruction in critical thinking, students explore the fundamental human concepts of race, sex, age, and power. David…

Literature based reading can be used as a means of introducing and reinforcing geographic concepts. Every story has a setting. The setting is the time and place. Setting is representative of the five fundamental themes of geography. Teachers can integrate geographic skills in order to enhance the student understanding of the text. Geographic…

This document presents a set of activities for teaching students in grades three through nine about geography. The book presents the activities under the five major geographic themes of location, place, relationships within places, movement, and regions. Extensive student readings, maps, and other diagrams appear within the book. The document…

Interdisciplinary curriculum is a methodology that can help students gain the necessary content knowledge to support the following basic skills: (1) using language well and thoughtfully; (2) thinking through a problem and experimenting with solutions; (3) understanding scientific and technological ideas and using tools; (4) using imagination; (5)…

In 1983, Charles County Community College (CCCC) initiated a project to infuse academic information from the sciences, humanities, and social sciences into developmental courses. The reorganization assignments related to 27 topics that promoted academic examination and cultural literacy while at the same time drawing from students' own…

Middle school students from The College School, a private school in Webster Groves (Missouri) have completed a class called "Caves and Crystallography." A thematic approach was used in the course in which students and teachers read books telling how caves were formed, saw movies which explained the delicate balance of life underground,…

By examining the trends in equity and academic excellence, this monograph interprets America's history of educational reform. The first section, "The Legacy of Reform," analyzes themes after colonial times. William Penn and Benjamin Franklin advocated humanitarian, middle-class education following the American Revolution. By the late…

The summer 1986 High School Preparation for Raising Educational Performance (PREP) program (in its third year of operation at 25 New York City high schools) included for the second year an English as a second language (ESL) component. Designed to help students who had recently immigrated develop the English language listening, speaking, reading,…

This guide is intended to assist teachers in planning and implementing an effective all-day kindergarten program for 5-year-olds. Section 1 provides plans for scheduling and programming the beginning days of the school year. Sample room arrangements to assist the teacher in setting up learning centers are described in section 2. Ideas for…

Intended for use with tenth grade students in Canadian schools, this paper provides a teaching unit designed to familiarize the students with the literature of their country. The paper contains (1) a teaching unit that uses poetry, stories, and films to illustrate the theme "Growing up Canadian"; (2) a curriculum planning model for…

The authors propose a new undergraduate social science curriculum which will enable sociology and anthropology majors to obtain an educational background adaptable to the changing job market. The program, which combines career education and the liberal arts, is organized by different themes which serve as the focus for learning and research within…

This survey provides information about the content of introductory economic courses. Responses from 62 midwestern college and university instructors of introductory economics characterize the content, methods, texts, and conceptual approaches currently used. Results of the study show that introductory courses teach supply and demand, product…

This is the second publication of the Literature Study Group using the thematic approach to literature for third through fifth year students in Scottish schools. Eight programs are presented which are a collection of literary texts grouped round a central theme. The programs are the work of different teachers who set out to discover in the…