Most teachers have been good students. Some students are fast learners and attain the required knowledge and skills easily; others are obedient, hard workers. In either case, teachers are likely to believe that if students really try, they will do well. Listening to students over many years, the author has learned that this is probably not true.…

Now for the first time ever, the bestselling, teacher-trusted "Quick-Guides to Inclusion" are available in a single updated and revised volume -- complete with seven all-new Quick-Guides. A resource for busy K-12 teachers who need fast, friendly, and practical guidance on including students with disabilities in general education classrooms, this…

As members of the faculty of the same college, the State University of New York at Potsdam, the fifteen contributors to this book have the unique experience of working from the same pool of students in order to explore how to improve teaching, enhance learning, and make the classroom more interesting. Together professors from thirteen different…

This paper suggests that the whole language approach, widely used for first-language reading instruction, is the most appropriate means for teaching reading to learners of English as a second language (ESL). Drawing on research evidence, seven basic tenets of whole language instruction are explained and applied to ESL reading instruction. These…

This study was undertaken to describe ways in which "performance oriented" teachers in Maryland communicate learning targets, elements of quality, and standards for performance to their students. Surveys were distributed to approximately 90 participants at the annual meeting of the Maryland Assessment Consortium and to 72 scoring team…

This paper reports on an ethnographic exploration of the teaching style and methods of a junior high physical education instructor serving predominantly African American students in an economically disadvantaged Chicago, Illinois neighborhood. Prior to her reassignment, the instructor in question was exceptionally popular among students, despite a…

A list of suggestions for the content-area teacher dealing with limited-English-proficient students is designed to help increase the comprehensible input provided to the students. A brief introductory section reviews theory underlying the approach. Subsequently, nine lists outline specific classroom activities (speaking/listening), teacher…

This study describes the use of VaxNotes, an electronic conferencing software, in a 16-week graduate distance learning course at a large Midwestern university. The seminar was taught at two campuses, by two instructors, connected by video and audio distance learning technologies. Discussions held outside class were conducted initially by…

A third-grade teacher and a teacher educator argue that, in an elementary mathematics class in which the teacher is encouraging the children to communicate and justify their mathematical ideas, the features of a mathematical task shape the mathematical discourse. They conjecture that divergent tasks, problems with many correct answers, may…

After 10 years of teaching rule-driven, procedure-based, algorithm-oriented mathematics, an elementary teacher describes how she began to rethink her teaching style after returning to school for a graduate degree. Her rethinking is based on the first of four student teaching events that spanned an entire school year in which she used the…

The Center for Technology in Education (CTE), a partnership between Johns Hopkins University and the Maryland state department of education, developed a model for teaching autistic students that integrates technology-based instructional and behavioral supports into existing curriculum. The goal is to promote student gains in communication, social…

This practicum project was designed to improve communication in the kindergarten classroom between regular students and a mainstreamed nonverbal child with cerebral palsy. A target group of 24 pre-kindergartners was exposed to 12 weeks of the intervention which included such strategies as teaching the verbal students how to identify communication…

A study investigated metadiscoursal signalling devices used in discussions in a business administration course in a British university, focusing on the use and function of the devices in seminars and tutorials. Data were drawn from seminar and discussion classes recorded for distance education purposes. The corpus of about 30,000 words included 18…

Classrooms in our nation's schools reflect an "assembly-line model" of work in which the educational product is a set of students' performance and abilities learned in school. Contemporary educators are critical of the old factory model and seek to replace it by classrooms whose goals are to learn and to develop knowledge. Studied is the…

The guide was developed as a resource for the adult English-as-a-Second-Language teacher with classes of mixed language proficiency, and to accompany a teacher workshop. It consists of a brief introductory section to orient teachers to the approach and materials suggested, and a series of separate classroom activities for language skill…