Constructing model hot air balloons is an activity that captures the imaginations of students, enabling teachers to present required content to minds that are open to receive it. Additionally, there are few activities that lend themselves to integrating so much content across subject areas. In this article, the authors describe how they have…

The Learning Cycle, a popular medium for teaching science lessons, can be used to teach a language arts lesson on acronyms, an appropriate skill topic for students in grades four through six. Acronyms are fascinating words that can challenge students to solve the puzzle of what the letters stand for. The three-phase Learning Cycle arranges…

Mentor teachers have an important role in inducing beginning teachers into the profession. They must be highly accepting of new teachers and be able to work with teachers possessing a wide variety of personalities and purposes. Mentor teachers must be chosen carefully. The mentor teacher should be highly knowledgeable about methods of teaching…

This course syllabus describes a preservice teacher education class titled: "Strategies of Teaching Social Studies and Language Arts with Clinical Experiences." The syllabus identifies the three required textbooks and provides a bibliography. Following the course description, eight course objectives are stated; six assignments are outlined; and…

Writing is a fundamental skill for students to develop. A learning environment should be in evidence which assists students to achieve more optimally in writing. Writing activities should be interesting, purposeful, meaningful, and provide for individual differences. Students need stimulating learning opportunities involving a variety of purposes…

This unit of study introduces high-ability intermediate-grade students to the aspect of grammar which is usually missing from technically oriented studies of grammar, namely, the wonder and pleasure of grammar or grammar appreciation. It presents grammar as a powerful way for one's mind to make ideas out of language, and a way of inspecting one's…

It is a misguided and wasteful effort to try to separate out the teaching of language arts from the teaching of social studies and to wage war over which subject is most deserving of children's time. Instead, there is real power to be gained from teaching from a combined language arts-social studies perspective that shares similar goals and values…

Fingerplays--brief stories that rhyme and can be dramatized by using the fingers--are an old activity for children that can be traced in Indian lore to a time before Columbus. Today, fingerplays delight and fascinate young children and provide a variety of learning opportunities. Fingerplays can provide a source for strengthening language…

Written for elementary school teachers who want to help their students delve into poetry, this book grows out of a comparison between gardening and writing poetry. Students at the alternative school founded by the book's author work and play on a plot of land near the school; inside, they work and play with words and imagery. Many examples of…

This report highlights one of six language arts case study teachers whose classroom was studied for a 2-day period to observe writing instruction, to ask questions about the Kentucky Instructional Results Information System assessments, and to talk with her students about their writing. In this paper, the focus is on questions and how this…

This book presents the complete proceedings (written presentations as well as transcriptions of oral presentations and group discussions) of a national symposium on alternative assessment in the language arts. Oral presentation titles are: "Current Issues in Alternative Assessment" (Roger Farr); "Whole Language and Evaluation: Some…

Answering a variety of questions about cross-age and peer tutoring, this digest provides information on how tutoring programs are organized, how to start programs, why tutoring programs are effective, and what the critical ingredients of peer programs are. The digest briefly discusses two examples of effective programs recognized by the National…

A major task involved in teaching pupils is to group them wisely for instruction. Most elementary schools group learners in terms of a self-contained classroom. While it may seem extreme, all curriculum areas on each grade in the elementary school may be departmentalized. In some ways, departmentalization harmonizes more with a separate subjects…

This booklet contains guidelines for developing oral communication curricula in kindergarten through 12th grade. The booklet addresses the issue of whether students are being taught to communicate effectively, and discusses the following topics: enhancing the role of oral communication in elementary and secondary education; the objective,…

The background experiences of the rural student provide a wealth of ideas that can be expressed through poetry writing. Poetry forms which can be taught in the language arts class, or throughout the curriculum are: (1) the couplet, which contains two lines with ending words rhyming; (2) the triplet, which contains three lines with all ending words…