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…

Based on the work of a seventh/eighth grade school teacher and one of his classes, this guide provides teachers and other interested persons with step-by-step instructions for conducting research and interviews to publish a local history of the community. Chapters provide information on the following topics: (1) introducing the topic of local…

Describes how fourth graders, together with first graders, planned, wrote, and edited a book of recollections, opinions, personalized stories, and poems. The article discusses the interviews between the fourth and first grade students, the final editing and production of the book, and the publication party. (SM)

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…

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…

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.…

A selection of essays in learning styles in English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) instruction includes: "Cultural Differences in Learning Styles" (Gayle L. Nelson); "Difficulties with Cross-Cultural Learning-Styles Assessment" (Patricia A. Eliason); "Gender Differences in Language Learning Styles: What Do They Mean?" (Rebecca L. Oxford); "Cognitive…