Describes a weekly meeting of a collaborative elementary school teacher support group in Ohio. Triangular conferencing, which involves parent-teacher-student and is student-led, is the subject of the meeting. Also describes visits to elementary classrooms where new ways to teach reading and writing are implemented with input from Regie Routman,…

Presents 17 classroom activities with an environmental theme. Activities are divided by grade level (grades K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12) and by subject matter (science, social studies, language arts, mathematics, and fine arts). Contains 15 suggestions for celebrating Earth Day. (LZ)

Expresses concern with the trend in K-12 education to subsume oral communication programs under the rubric of language arts in English departments. Uses California as a case study to examine whether English teachers are integrating speech communication into the English classroom. Finds that little direct instruction in communication principles and…

Presents a computer-assisted activity that helps students discover the importance of choosing words carefully. With a word processing program, small groups of students prepare creative, fill-in-the-blank challenges in which classmates must replace missing adjectives or verbs. (SM)

Describes "Help Our Earth!"--a flexible, multimedia software program for language arts and science, which presents the topic using color, sound, graphics, good literature, and an inspiring video. (SR)

Provides six fully developed library media activities designed to be used in connection with specific curriculum units in mathematics, social studies, reading/language arts, and science. Library media skills objectives, curriculum objectives, resources, instructional roles, activities and procedures for completion, evaluation, and followup are…

Explains how elementary teachers can help students understand onomatopoeia, suggesting that they define onomatopoeia, share examples of it, read poems and have students discuss onomatopoeic words, act out common household sounds, write about sound effects, and create choral readings of onomatopoeic poems. Two appropriate poems are included. (SM)

Discusses the theory and practice of literature study, an approach to using books with elementary and junior high/middle school children. Discusses how teachers learn how to turn talk into dialogue; what children learn from literature studies; and what the children want teachers to know about their experiences with literature studies. (RS)

Provides five fully developed library media activities designed to be used in connection with specific curriculum units in art, health, reading/language arts, and social studies. Library media skills objectives, curriculum objectives, resources, instructional roles, activity and procedures for completion, evaluation, and followup are described for…

Fourteen examples are given of teacher-created day-long celebrations which are designed to sharpen students' thinking skills and incorporate math, science, reading, and language arts. The special days include Janus Day, Twins Day, Friendship Day, Interactive Reading Fair, Sixties Day, Clash Day, Generation Day, and Back-to-the-Future Day. (IAH)

Describes photosketching, including classroom applications in language arts, social studies, history, art, geography, and physical education; the materials that are needed; and actual procedures involved in teaching students the photosketching process. (Contains three references.) (LRW)

Discusses the whole-language approach to education at the middle school level, introducing concepts and techniques that teachers can employ to implement whole-language learning in their classrooms. Notes that, even in departmentalized schools with short class periods, teachers can use many of these ideas in whatever subject they teach. (MDM)

Advises teachers trying to understand the whole-language approach to not expect to become a whole-language expert immediately; make learning real; make students responsible for daily routines; talk to parents about their children; beware of publishers and workshops that are whole language in name only; and develop a community of readers and…

Argues that the primary value of literature lies within the work itself, an appreciation of it, and the connections readers make to it. Discusses how a reader response approach offers one way to open the door for children to the lived-through experience of literature as art with intrinsic value. (SR)

Part 1, published in the November 1993 issue of "International Schools Journal," suggested that teachers should address how students learn and how teachers teach to penetrate the surface of internationalism and do more than create a shared curriculum. To succeed, learners must regularly engage in purposeful inquiry into meaningful…