Something significant can be learned by "listening-in" on children's conversations. Research has shown individual differences among students that may affect children's achievement. Teachers need to "listen-in" on children's conversations and "listen-for" what children are saying about how well they understand directions and activities. (CB)

This article highlights several factors that contribute to the complexity of tasks facing teachers and students as they interact to construct everyday classroom teaching-learning events. Also explored are ways in which expectations are signaled verbally or nonverbally and consequences that follow students' attempts to read teachers' cues. (CB)

This article: (1) describes the characteristics and duration of transitions between units of classroom activities; and (2) investigates how transitions are achieved by three effective junior high school teachers. (CB)

Discusses the overwhelming response to "The Campus Climate: A Chilly One for Women?" (ERIC ED 215 628). Points out that the questions raised and recommendations offered in this publication merely suggest the magnitude of a problem whose chilling effects characterize not only the classroom but the whole campus environment. (PD)

The use of foreign language classroom conversation as a prewriting exercise, to help students discover composition topics, discuss the pros and cons, shape the narrative or thesis, and gather detail in a coherent way, launches the composition process and makes the homework of writing and proofreading more interesting and initially less difficult.…

Offers suggestions for making questions more effective. Argues that harder questions are not necessarily better. (FL)

Examines requests for information and action in peer-directed groups of children engaged in learning specific skills. Concludes that (1) children who use information requests effectively obtain higher test scores, (2) children can help each other learn, and (3) encouraging small group talk about a task promotes academic and social learning. (HTH)

Describes how students might be permitted to organize classroom discussion of writing. (DD)

This resource book seeks to provide the building blocks needed for public speaking while eliminating the fear factor. The book explains how educators can perfect their oratorical capabilities as well as enjoy the security, confidence, and support needed to create and deliver dynamic speeches. Following an Introduction: A Message for Teachers,…

The growth of the Internet and other technologies has teachers finding themselves once again moving away from the "traditional classroom" into educational domains that have no physical boundaries and incredible potential for interaction and collaboration among classroom participants. A hybrid course maximizes this potential by offering…

Defining teaching as "the way we bring ourselves to the learners" at the current moment, this paper describes "Enterprise Talk," a measurable, practical guide for talking to children in times of difficulty and responding with effective positives. After discussing how teachers teach (i.e., teachers model; teachers inform;…

This booklet presents the high school assessment program for science education by listing Maryland's Core Learning Goals. The match of content indicators and the skills for successful elaborations in thinking, communication, and technology regarding science education are discussed. (ASK)

Recent emphasis on discourse in mathematics classrooms has spurred a line of inquiry about different forms of talk in these settings. If mathematical thinking is understood to be a set of practices that includes mathematical discourse, argumentation, which has an especially important role in mathematics, requires analytic attention. In particular,…

This digest focuses on the application of discourse analysis to second language teaching and learning. It provides examples of how teachers can improve their teaching practices by investigating actual language use both in and out of the classroom, and how students can learn language through exposure to different types of discourse. (VWL)