Offering practical, classroom-based strategies teachers can use to promote literacy development, this book presents many examples of children engaging in discussion activities about narrative and informational text that emphasize collaborating, constructing meaning, and using these different types of texts to arrive at new understandings. Chapters…

One of the prerequisites or unavoidable results of multiculturalism is that the classroom becomes what Mary Louise Pratt calls a "contact zone." But how does the teacher keep discussion productive without taking sides? How does the teacher abdicate enough authority to diminish the asymmetricality but not so much that the class becomes a…

With the purpose of developing caring and capable children, this book offers teachers and counselors a collection of over 75 activities as teaching and guidance tools. Characteristics of caring and capable children, which reflect the development of empathy, compassion, assertiveness, and self-discipline, are described. The activities are grouped…

All students enrolled in the entry level foundations course in the College of Education of Kutztown University (Pennsylvania) participate in home groups, a cooperative learning strategy. Each student is assigned to a five- or six-person home group on the first day of class. Although group placements are made on the basis of class lists, every…

As K-12 schools connect to the Internet, a new method of communication opens up to educators and students. This updated digest describes some sample services and resources that are available to the K-12 community by electronic mail over the Internet. Information services and resources covered include: question answering services; listservs…

The primary purpose of this study was to understand what happens when some aspects of the constructivist approach, namely prediction, explanation, student-centered, and teacher-centered discussions, are applied to science teaching. The study involved 363 junior high school students in Taiwan. It combined the effectiveness of four alternative…

In 1996, Texas's Lee College (LC) participated in the American Association of Community Colleges' Exploring America's Communities project, which works to strengthen the teaching and learning of American history, literature, and culture at U.S. community colleges. LC's goal for the project has been to enhance the faculty's ability to fulfill its…

These classroom guides, designed to accompany the daily CNN (Cable News Network) Newsroom broadcasts for the month of October, provide program rundowns, suggestions for class activities and discussion, student handouts, and a list of related news terms. Topics covered by the guides include: bedroom community business, freedom of expression and…

In introductory psychology courses, the desire to cover content can conflict with the desire to acquaint students with psychological thinking processes. The IDEAL method is a group problem solving quiz technique which addresses both of these goals. In the process, instructors choose key concepts from a given reading and divide the class into…

A study described, analyzed, and interpreted the ways an effective high school teacher used literacy activities (reading, writing, and discussion) to teach chemistry to first-year chemistry students. The teacher selected was considered effective by peers and students and professed to intentionally use literacy activities as a means of teaching…

This booklet is part of a series designed to help students take and defend a position on public issues. This unit on the New Deal era raises the following issues: (1) How responsible should the government be for the economic well being of citizens? To what extent should this responsibility outweigh traditional ideas of property rights? (2) What…

Proceedings from the Sunbird Seminar for artists, art historians, and art educators from the California State University campuses are documented in this volume. The presentations included discussions about the national context for art education and teacher credentialing in California, the Snowbird projects sponsored by the Getty Center for…

This study sought to determine the effects of the Junior Great Books program on the higher level thinking skills of gifted/able learners and on interpretive reading skills development. Three groups of students were observed. They consisted of 83 elementary students in 2 experimental groups, all of whom participated in a Junior Great Books program,…

In the fall of 1991, the Master of Arts in Teaching program of The School for International Training, Brattleboro, Vermont, created a position to mentor newly arrived, full time adjunct faculty in their adjustment to a nontraditional program that operates as a community and provides experiential learning. This paper describes a group of five…

The meeting reported here was held to address the issues related to the increasing numbers of foreign students in Japan (31,000 in 1989 and increasing annually by 20%). First, profiles of the speakers and the texts of their speeches are presented, as well as the comments made during the panel discussions and symposium sessions. Speakers from 11…