Presents 2 activities for students aged 8-12 in which students determine (1) whether or not earthworms can see white light; and (2) how an earthworm moves without legs. (MDH)

Describes the Chemistry Visualization (ChemViz) Project, a Web venture maintained by the University of Illinois National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) that enables high school students to use computational chemistry as a technique for understanding abstract concepts. Discusses the evolution of computational chemistry and provides a…

Identifies World Wide Web (Internet) sites useful for teachers. These include sites for locating lesson plans, conducting research or locating information sources, Web scavenger hunts, lesson enhancements, virtual field trips and explorations, sites that enhance collaboration, and sites for student research and for information about college…

A case study explored how a middle-school teacher made decisions about individualization in daily lessons for students with learning disabilities. Results indicated content-centered planning and instruction as prominent themes in the first year, and a focus on the academic diversity of students in the second. (Author/CR)

Describes Pen-DOR (Pennsylvania Education Network Digital Object Repository), a digital library designed to provide K-12 educators with access to multimedia resources and tools to create new lesson plans and modify existing ones via the World Wide Web. Discusses design problems of a distributed, object-oriented database architecture and describes…

Describes an assignment that immerses students in regional study based on the belief that students' learning is enhanced when they acquire a personal sense of travel in that region. Asks students to research and write narrative travelogues describing vicarious travel in a region. Discusses student reactions and pedagogical outcomes. (DSK)

Describes a lesson planning framework that content-based instruction teachers can adapt to their instructional materials, student populations, and classroom settings. Applying the framework to an authentic reading passage, the sample lesson illustrates how teachers can develop activities that supplement the content, increase student access to and…

Discusses the difficulty children with learning disabilities have in making friends and describes a strategy for incorporating children's literature into teaching friendship skills. A practice lesson that used this strategy with five elementary children with disabilities is described and found to be effective in promoting friendship skills. (CR)

Discusses using scripted lessons to increase the academic information teachers give to students with emotional or behavior disorders before they ask the students to perform tasks that require the information. The results from a study that successfully used written scripts to decrease undesirable student behaviors are reviewed. (CR)

Describes a librarian/teacher coplanned fourth-grade unit at Central Elementary School (Indianapolis, Indiana). The lesson focused on wolves and pack behavior and incorporated the tale of the Big Bad Wolf and the Three Little Pigs to teach the media literacy concepts of point of view, message, stereotype, and bias. Sample worksheets are included.…

Summarizes the events leading up to and the investigation that followed the Watergate break-in. Presents a lesson plan using primary documents that allows students to explore the workings of congressional investigations, the key figures in the scandal, and the arguments of the different participants. Includes copies of the documents. (DSK)

Advocates concept-related vocabulary instruction, in which students link individual words with larger literature concepts. Outlines four steps to creating a concept-related vocabulary lesson. Offers examples of how concept-related vocabulary lessons can be conducted while reading, before reading, and after reading. Outlines web, weave, and…

Uses the "ABCs" of lesson planning so teachers can put the theory of active learning into practice and make learning more meaningful for their students. Concludes that teachers can make reading and learning more meaningful for their students by tying together the three themes of building student interest through attention grabbers, teaching the…

Describes a teacher's method of motivating her sixth- and seventh-grade students to become interested in interview pieces with authors. Provides a worksheet that encourages student engagement with the interview questions. (TB)

Describes a teaching technique that can be used to open a discussion about suicide. The life events of a fictional individual are mapped on a timeline and examined with the class, after which the instructor informs the students that the person committed suicide at a young age. Student reaction is usually quite strong. (MDM)