In England over the last 20 years there has been a major revolution in the teaching of primary school children. This revolution has come about through the efforts of wise, enthusiastic, and experimenting teachers rather than through the idealized practices and techniques of professors, inspectors, or administrators. This document gives an account…

A manual concerned with communication and the development of communicative skills in general is presented. Specifically, it deals with the significance of speech in its relation to reading. The point is made that a child's awareness of self as an individual and as a worthy human being emerges in direct relation to this ability to express himself.…

Discusses the problems that children who do not speak the language of their school experience, as well as the personal, social, and cultural characteristics of learners that affect their progress in a second language. (DF)

Recounts the experiences shared in a writing workshop for senior citizens in Harlem. Notes how the teacher developed as a workshop leader, what techniques were used to elicit writing by participants, and the "chemistry" of participant interaction. (RL)

Presents a social studies unit on house building for 5- to 7-year olds. Discusses rationale for the project approach and outlines unit components. Describes the three components of the curriculum planning strategy: (1) impression activities; (2) extension activities; and (3) expression activities. Discusses experiences during unit implementation…

Reiterates the appropriateness and validity of using student journals in social studies instruction. Differentiates between personal and content area journals, the latter focusing on responses to issues raised in the classroom and readings. Maintains that journal writing increases critical and metacognitive thinking. (MJP)

Explores how teachers can use picture book illustrations to teach children the art of collage. Focuses on three children's picture books and offers art activities showcasing three collage techniques: (1) cut and torn paper collage; (2) photomontage; and (3) texture collages and collage constructions. Relates each activity to the National Standards…

Presents a lesson plan explaining and providing procedures for a flippy theater project. Flippy theater is a series of drawings that illustrate a one-act play, presented on large individual sheets or canvas suspended from a pole hung between two uprights or held by two people. Includes an example. (MJP)

A study examined the effect of a brief journal writing exercise on the depressive and posttraumatic stress symptoms of 38 mothers of Neonatal Intensive Care Unit graduates. Results found that the journal writing for 30 minutes a day for 4 consecutive days reduced physiological distress for the mothers. (Contains references.) (CR)

Reports a research project that uses photography in media education at the elementary school level. Outlines why photography is an appropriate medium and describes projects and games the children used to explore the meaning of photographs, particularly those in the family album. (KM)

Explores Robert Henri's philosophy that art making is the inevitable result of reaching a state of heightened awareness. Considers how art teachers can convey this to students. Examines creative feelings, learning characteristics, and teaching strategies. Concludes that teachers' experience of this awareness as artists determines their ability to…

A program was designed to prevent school adjustment problems in primary school children by identifying at-risk children using a behavior rating scale and training them in coping and self-expression skills. A study of the program's effectiveness with 26 children found no significant differences between experimental and control groups on behavioral,…

Describes a motivating activity for drawing still-life. States that students did contour drawings with markers and then layers of color tissue were used for enhancement. Students learned to appreciate the accidental variations caused by the materials. Concludes that this lesson increased students' motivation for contour drawing. Identifies…

Aims to show that children have a "functional use of drawing" which contrasts with the mechanistic stages model of drawing development. Observes that young children's images often show extended time sequences. Argues that, when considered from this viewpoint, children's drawing abilities develop gradually from a high to a low variety of…

Examines Houston Baker's argument for rap music's place in academe. Baker suggests rap as being one of the most creative and productive forms of cultural expression to come along in some time warranting the same kind of scholarly attention afforded the works of history's most noted philosophers and poets. (GLR)