A flood of new multicultural readers and textbooks are hitting the market for writing and literature courses at the college level. Yet there has been no systematic examination of how these readers are being used, the purposes and audiences for which they are written, or the critical reception they have received. Multicultural readers distinguish…

A project is an in-depth investigation of a topic worth learning more about, usually undertaken by a group of children within a class. The goal of a project is to learn more about a topic rather than to find answers to questions posed by a teacher. Project work is complementary to the systematic parts of a curriculum. Whereas systematic…

The "HumEn" (Humanities/Engineering Integration) program developed at the Colorado School of Mines integrates humanities and engineering through reading and writing. Through integrative reading and writing engineering students are led to make appropriate connections between the humanities and their technical work, connections that will…

An integrated language perspective on teaching in the elementary school is outlined in this book. The text provides the theory on which the perspective is based and provides many examples of how it may be translated into practice. Chapter one provides the general principles of the integrated language perspective. Chapter two describes the…

This paper focuses on practical activities for incorporating children's literature and thematic activities in the curriculum to stimulate children's thinking and language. The paper includes a review of the current literature about literature-based programs and a thematic unit on dinosaurs developed across the curriculum at the kindergarten level.…

The articles in this journal issue present four methods for developing units in expository and creative writing instruction. The titles of the articles and their authors are as follows: (1) "A Writing Unit: Ten or Twenty Kids on Their 10-Speeds" (Joyce S. Steward); (2) "Great Painting, Great Writing" (Keith F. Voos); (3) "Building a Character:…

Noting that coupling stories and trains is an arrangement that appeals to nearly everyone and that building on this foundation provides an excellent theme for summer reading fun, this planning and activity guide offers suggestions to help librarians develop a highly motivating summer reading program. The first section of the guide discusses…

Theme study is student centered and emphasizes a coherent and holistic approach to learning through the study of broad themes rather than compartmentalized subject areas. This book explains what is meant by a theme studies approach to education and illustrates how it works with case studies--descriptions of theme studies that were conducted at a…

Intended for primary school teachers involved in social studies instruction, this paper offers guidelines for selecting and using children's literature to teach social studies concepts. The paper first deals with selecting children's literature works, presenting basic considerations relating children's developmental stages to characteristics of…

As an instructional practice in second and foreign language education, content-based instruction is not a fully revolutionary paradigm, but a spin-off approach which derives from the evolution of Communicative Language Teaching. Sharing with CLT the same fundamental principles, CBI bases its idiosyncrasy on promoting the use of subject matter for…

Films can be an effective method of teaching English, the humanities, and social studies to students from the junior high school through the community college level. This book in part a guide and in part a teacher's memoir, sets forth a rationale for using films in the classroom to encourage reading, writing, thoughtful discussion, and an…

At North Shore Community College (NSCC), students in career programs comprise 70% of the student population. To counter the vocational-school effect of programs heavily emphasizing career training, interdisciplinary, team-taught courses were initiated. However, the time required in planning, scheduling, and grading along with other problems…

One of a series of Resource Papers for College Geography, this thematic study guide focuses on literary setting and the personal space of fictional characters as an approach to comparative literary study, and concurrently uses fictional treatments of landscape and place as a means to encourage greater sensitivity to geographical and architectural…

This document presents basic materials for class reading and instructional materials for teachers to use for four thematic units: understanding death and dying; understanding loneliness and alienation; understanding those people with mental and physical limitations; and understanding those who fight for justice. The materials are annotated and…

This guide presents teaching strategies for using the basic texts adopted for American literature study in two different year-long courses. Included are the rationale, course objectives, course outline, suggested units and activities, and individualized projects using media for "American Literature, Chronologically Speaking," and the rationale,…