This article presents a thematic, inquiry-based Instructional Resource for secondary students. This instructional resource uses thematic inquiry to facilitate transfer of knowledge. A theme is a general topic that can help students see relationships and make connections--and transfer information to new situations. Students may be more willing and…

Concept mapping (a combined qualitative/quantitative approach) was used to clarify the domain, composition, and underlying structure of 82 Canadian professionals' experiences of reward in their work with sex offenders. Seven thematic clusters were identified: Protection of Potential Victims, Socially Meaningful Curiosity, Enjoyment of Counselling,…

In this article, the authors discuss thematic solutions using young adult literature to increase reading comprehension. Here, they emphasize that prior knowledge plays a very important role in the reading process. As students read, they actively "construct meaning through the integration of existing and new knowledge and the flexible use of…

While the intergenerational bonds remain strong for children with elder relatives living close by, increasingly children in the U.S. lack meaningful connections with older adults. Divorce and family mobility are two major causes, and some youth are affected by negative stereotypes of older people. Bringing seniors into classrooms or taking…

This paper calls for an alternative view of educational policy, a departure from the macroperspective currently dominating policy analysis. The latter perspective tends to focus on policy development and implementation issues of politics and control, compliance and measurement, and relationship structures and influences among groups and actors.…

This learning station guide adapts the Bubble Festival, an all-school event, for individual classrooms. It presents students with a variety of different challenges at learning stations set up around the classroom. The activities are student-centered and involve open-ended investigations. Also included are ways to extend students' experiences at…

This book is based on the belief that children's literature and geography should be linked in elementary classrooms. The book has three major sections. The first section, "Using Literature to Teach the Five Themes of Geography," provides a brief overview of the five themes of geography (location, place, relationships within place,…

This paper discusses plays and companion art pieces suitable for use in the United States history classroom. After a poster from a production of Max Frisch's "Biedermann und die Brandstifter," the paper presents a list of 18 questions ("lenses") for the study of plays with a historical connection; a list of 15 plays for…

This Digest focuses on the method of teaching foreign languages in Kindergarten through Grade 8 using content-based instruction. In this approach, the foreign language is used as the medium for teaching subject content, such as mathematics or social studies. In content-based instruction, students become proficient in the language because the focus…

This volume examines the history of the State of Hawaii. The book is organized, as most history books are, chronologically; however, it also is arranged thematically. Four aspects of Hawaiian history are divided into three time periods. Unit 1, "Precontact to 1900," addresses that era from the political, economic, social, and land…

Teachers should help students gain a sense of where they stand. It is difficult to imagine literature without a sense of place--places bridge time and evoke and recreate the past. To compose is to remember, to recreate, and a sense of place begins the composing. Some northwestern U.S. books illustrate the point. In a college literature class,…

A study of Japanese ways of coping with pollution, urbanization, and industrialization offers an opportunity for the social studies student to gain intercultural perspectives on the continuing problems of a modernizing society. Three perspectives on ways of coping are presented to illustrate the concept. (Author/JH)

Intended for adaptation by teachers to suit their students' and their own strengths, this guide is a series of thematic units intended to encourage meaningful language use in an enjoyable and serious atmosphere in the ninth grade classroom. The guide includes many reading and writing activities that can be used in both the specific contexts in…

Intended for administrators and policy makers, as well as teachers, this digest examines the current state of humanities instruction and the evolving place of humanities in the high school English classroom. The digest first explores differing definitions of the humanities, and discusses reasons for the decline in emphasis on humanities…