If the modern conservatorium is to prosper in a rapidly changing cultural and economic landscape, it will need to provide a learning experience that produces multi-skilled and adaptable graduates who are self-monitoring and self-directing. By implication, teaching practices that have dominated in the past will need to be re-thought, and…

General education science teachers are meeting increasingly diverse classrooms of students that include students with disabilities. A one-week, summer, residential workshop was offered to interested science and special educators who worked through lab experiments one-on-one with students with physical or sensory disabilities (grades 7-12). To…

In this article, the author argues that, if schools truly were based on standards, they would look much different than they do now. She describes the standards-based system of an experimental school in Colorado. Here, she discusses how students document their work in a variety of ways, such as: (1) various types of portfolios; (2) oral delivery;…

The reader-response journal has proven useful in the literature-based composition class; it is also useful in the literature survey at the sophomore or junior level of college. Survey courses have a standard protocol that students have come to expect. In these classes, the teacher is an expert who lectures on historical background, trends, and…

The reading workshop approach provided the method for creating a literate environment in an adult basic education classroom. The students were able to experience the principles of time, ownership, and response. Story maps were used to introduce the basic elements of a fictional story. Character webs were introduced to help students think of words…

The paper argues that a relationship between visualization and mathematical problem solving ability exists. Research suggests that visual imagery leads to increased understanding of mathematical concepts at both the primary and secondary levels. Mathematical potential is not necessarily "born." Potential can be created in the least likely students…

This field study report recounts an action research project undertaken by an elementary school teacher to reflect on her practice as a teacher. After a review of the literature on using reflection for personal and professional growth, the ethnographic methodology employed in the study is discussed. The teacher action-researcher took 117 pages of…

This collection of articles on aspects of educational research, service, and leadership, are all written by members the Trenton (New Jersey) Area Chapter of Phi Delta Kappa. "Extra Year Programs: The K-1 Transition," by Richard Graja, reports on a study of 210 families regarding the Extra Year program, an opportunity for children to…

With each technological advancement--telephone, automobile, television, and modem--people gain convenience, efficiency, and speed; they lose immediacy, real as opposed to virtual community, and physicality. At a writer's computer conference, journal writers who have used a diary with a lock and key to keep writings private wonder how to reconcile…

This fastback serves as a brief guide to several strategies for teaching literature in the high school English classroom, including sample assignments for advanced classes and for students with special interests. Techniques are presented for teaching literature using individual response, small-group work, and whole-class instruction. Teaching…

Research suggests that the informal language of journals is very important. Language scholars such as J. Vygotsky (1962), J. Moffell (1968, 1982), P. Elbow (1973, 1982), and M. Shaughnessy (1977) believe that human beings find meaning through exploration in their own talking language. To add to the evidence in this area, a study conducted in an…

Student journal writing can connect reading, writing, and discussing through activities that accommodate diverse learning styles and that further students' linguistic development. The various uses of journal writing can be incorporated into one compact student notebook. A notebook for an English class might consist of a dialogue journal as a…

The examination of the journal (written in 1875) of a student of the Patterson Institute, a "female college" in Kentucky, reveals a young woman with a divided self--one part accepting her teacher's demands, the other undermining the daily writing assignment and the school's rules through acknowledged deception, sly subversion, mockery,…

Focusing on reading aloud in the classroom, this monograph demonstrates ways to integrate read alouds into an ongoing whole-language program in which children learn to reflect on literature by listening and responding to it. The monograph identifies and describes specific teaching strategies that invite students not only to listen to stories,…

A study examined the expectations of incoming University of Tennessee at Chattanooga freshmen about an hour-long placement essay. Subjects, 96 randomly chosen students, responded to a series of 5 questions concerning what an essay is, what kinds of writing they had done, how they feel about writing tests, what topics they had written about in…