Background: Research is proposed for preservice secondary mathematics teachers to develop and use reading strategies in math classrooms. Purpose: to determine if increased instruction on using specific reading strategies in secondary mathematics classrooms significantly impacts a) the type of reading-specific instructional strategies used, b)…

In this essay, the author suggests that performance studies--a large and varied body of work that takes the fluidity of self and the relationship between word and action as its central concepts--offers theories and methodologies for writing teachers to use to help students construct discoursal identities. Although the performative screen offers…

Focusing on students' responses to an 1876 writing assignment at Illinois Industrial University (which would ultimately become the University of Illinois), the author analyzes ideological tensions that occurred as the United States found itself revising the pastoral image of the farmer in an increasingly industrial age. (Contains 9 notes.)

Several teachers share their ideas for classroom activities. These include: (1) combining science and art on Earth Day; (2) implementing an inexpensive incentive scheme to get students to bring their signed papers back to school on time; (3) involving students in a virtual zoo; (4) planting real grass in Easter Bunny baskets; and (5) creating own…

Encouraging adolescents to envision themselves as writers, this book provides 24 step-by-step exercises to help them discover their writing style, explore new types of writing, experiment with genres, and evaluate their own work. The book also provides pragmatic information about the day-to-day realities of becoming a writer: finding the right…

Rural school students need ample opportunities to engage in creative writing, particularly the writing of poetry. A student teacher and a cooperating teacher in a rural fifth-grade classroom (with 12 students) guided the students in the writing of limericks by starting out with couplets, then triplets, and then limericks. The teacher had clearly…

Administrators at both state-funded and tuition-driven private institutions are now adhering to a bottom-line approach to education. In many cases, budget-minded administrators refuse to move forward on any educational initiative until this question is addressed: "What are you doing to encourage retention?" It is becoming clear that…

Writing is a fundamental skill for students to develop. A learning environment should be in evidence which assists students to achieve more optimally in writing. Writing activities should be interesting, purposeful, meaningful, and provide for individual differences. Students need stimulating learning opportunities involving a variety of purposes…

Student-professor conferencing and students' increased self-reflection are two of the unexpected benefits of portfolio assessment. While self-reflection is a key component of meaningful conferencing, it is also clearly evinced in the students' rationale statements. These written reflections address the relevance of students' work to course…

This paper presents materials related to an introduction to communication studies course, a sophomore-level course at Concordia College, Minnesota. The paper begins with discussions of the course philosophy and implementation, noting that the course design is based on a trajectory through three major units of study--definitions and processes of…

This book provides about 130 short, easily-prepared activities to supplement the longer teaching procedures that make up the main body of an English course. Suitable for elementary to advanced levels, the activities presented in the book can serve as a quick warm-up for the students, an idea for a brief vocabulary review, a light filler to provide…

A doctoral student's interest in self-culture connections led her to observe an English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) writing class focused on autobiography and read all the students' papers. Autobiographical writing not only gives ESL students a chance to write about what matters to them, but the teacher can capitalize on students' cultural…

This essay reflects on the ways in which the events of 9-11 offered those in the humanities an opportunity to demonstrate the many and varied gifts the disciplines have to offer a postmodern world that, for all its technological wonder, is still, ultimately, utterly dependent on food for the soul--the sort of nourishment that the liberal arts…

Critical pedagogy is fundamentally and ultimately linked with critical literacy. There can be no liberation of self or other without tools or language to perform counter-readings of dominant texts that serve the interests of power. Paulo Freire and Donaldo Macedo's work has, for some time, been a cornerstone for critical literacy, a model of…

The second semester of Freshman Composition at Troy State University focuses on writing about literature and writing a traditional research paper not necessarily based on literary research. One spring, the required reading was Shirley Ann Grau's novel, "The Keeper of the House." This novel, set in an unidentified Southern state, traces the history…