During a 10-week classroom-based study, 20 fourth grade students participated in a number of interdependent activities that focused on developing their visual meaning-making skills and competencies. As well as reading, responding in writing to and discussing a selection of picturebooks, graphic novels, and magazines, the students created graphic…

This article explains the components of the reading box and trading program wherein each student creates an activity box based on books. The boxes contain books, comprehension folders, and games and activities for developing language arts, reading and thinking skills. (KC)

This issue is devoted to articles describing education games in language arts, social studies, science, reading, and mathematics for the use of the elementary classroom teacher. (JD)

The purpose of this study was to determine the reactions of ninth-grade students to a three-week language arts minicourse program offered for three consecutive years at a junior high school in Minnesota. The students registered each year for one minicourse from a selection of approximately six. The courses were primarily activity centered and were…

Having students work together to write a historical novel is one way to integrate language arts and social studies. A step-by-step approach to completing such a writing project includes reading to get ready, brainstorming, developing a plot, adding descriptive detail, writing and revising, and final editing and typing. (SM)

Undergraduate education students can often discuss the language experience approach intelligently, listing advantages and disadvantages with ease, but express bewilderment when it comes time in a reading practicum class to actually use the approach with a child. A teaching guide can serve as an aid to those students who have previously studied the…

In an experiment designed to involve reluctant learners in a creative learning experience, a class of youngsters assumed the role of a Sahara Desert tribe and talked about their perplexity in finding a chair washed up on the beach. Using this incident as the focal point for a project, the teacher divided the children into small groups to compose…

Describes a project in which an inquiry approach to learning and teaching in an urban first-grade classroom resulted in a student-created database. Illustrates how computer integration in reading/language arts instruction caused students to participate more in group inquiry, using their individual abilities to contribute to group projects; it also…

To prevent children with reading difficulties from thinking of themselves as failures, academic experiences must include projects that will motivate them to be responsible learners, enhance their self-concept, and reinforce all the language arts skills. One class of sixth grade students with reading disabilities made minibooks from greeting cards…

Classroom projects, activities, and games for use in primary classrooms, which were developed by high school students serving as aides, are presented. Most of the projects are organized into the following curriculum areas: reading/language arts, multidisciplinary studies, mathematics, social studies, and science. Class activities having similar…

This book describes, in detail, practical ways to develop an open, individualized and child-centered classroom by using learning or interest centers. Consideration is given to the initial planning of learning centers, and sections discuss various kinds and uses of learning centers for the primary and intermediate grades. Topics discussed include…

Teachers' ideas for quick classroom activities include creating a garden-in-winter bulletin board, writing a science story, playing a Valentine's game, graphing vowels, averaging students' sizes, creating lifesize figures of historical people, making picture books, creating an idiom bulletin board, and sending school valentines to local hospitals.…