This book focuses on quick and easy language arts activities to inspire and motivate students in kindergarten to sixth grades. Ingenious ideas appeal to children's enthusiasm for games, parades, race cars, their own names, and much more. The activities cost little or nothing. They engage young learners, and they work! This book is perfect for a…

Despite the importance of first grade as a crucial period in a young student's academic development, little is known nationally about how much time first-graders actually spend in class on various subjects or about the kinds of activities and skills that they work on in class. This Issue Brief details how often per week and how much time per day…

This book is about defining, establishing, and sustaining a literacy community in a seventh-grade reading classroom. The book examines this particular literacy community, its meaning making, and the power structures within the community--providing educators with insights they can apply in their own classrooms. It is based on a 4-year examination,…

A person can communicate more accurately by possessing a rich vocabulary, be it in listening, speaking, reading, or writing. Then too, students need a well developed vocabulary which is integrated across the entire curriculum. This paper focuses on the plethora of vocabulary terms in diverse curriculum areas, including social studies, science,…

This document contains issues of the "Syndactics Bulletin" published between 1989 and 1991. Volume 6 includes 9 issues provided between January and December of 1989; volume 7 includes 9 issues produced between January and December of 1990; and volume 8 includes the only 5 issues of the Bulletin published in 1991. Each four-page bulletin…

This document deals with testing in communication arts for 11th graders in Missouri public schools. The document contains the following items from Session 1 in the Test Booklet: "Thomas Hart Benton: Champion of the American Scene" (Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan) (Items 5, 6, and 7); "Rhythms of the River" (Rebecca Christian)…

This document deals with testing in communication arts for third graders in Missouri public schools. A story from "Highlights for Children" ("The Night the Lights Went Out") was used as a passage for Session 1 of the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) test. The test provides five reading and writing activities from the story.…

This document deals with testing in communication arts for 11th graders in Missouri public schools. The document contains the following items from the Test Booklet: "Two Words" (Isabel Allende) (Session 1, Items 5, 6, and 7); "Gumshoes Turn to Internet for Spadework" (Nicole Gaouette) (Session 1, Item 5); a writing prompt; and…

This practical guidebook aims to show preschool, kindergarten, and primary teachers how to refine their literacy evaluation practices through careful "kidwatching." By observing and recording children's literacy development, teachers also develop new understandings of the ways children think and learn. Ultimately, through kidwatching,…

In this book 100 dynamic educators share some words that are important to them and what those words mean for teaching--here are the ideas that can start a teacher's day or stimulate new ideas for class activities. According to the book, each educator was asked to select a term that reflected an important idea for teaching; the terms appear in…

Teachers can take advantage of the appeal and power of Caldecott Award literature to extend and promote learning across the curriculum. This book demonstrates how to use award-winning books as springboards to language arts learning in the library and classroom, and the expansion of student awareness and appreciation of illustration techniques. For…

Noting that Washington Irving's classic tale of the Headless Horseman has lately become a Halloween favorite, this lesson plan helps students explore the artistry that helped make Irving the United States' first literary master, and ponders the mystery of what happened to Ichabod Crane. Its 4 lessons seek to make students able to: (1) summarize…

This book uses art to stimulate content-area language development and writing skills. From A to Z, the 81 animal patterns in the book combine with 35 different activities to enhance the primary curriculum--each student gets a photocopy of the pattern, paper, scissors, and some materials to decorate the "critter." The book's activities…

The implementation of the Houghton-Mifflin K-5 "Invitations to Literacy" language arts program was studied during its first year in California's Moreno Valley Unified School District. A sample teacher survey was developed, pilot tested, and sent to the District. The sample consisted of 658 regular, 20 special day, 19 resource specialist, and 118…