Describes how technology helped one elementary teacher meet the needs and celebrate the strengths of all his students in a mixed-ability-grouped, student-centered classroom. Technology allowed the children many more choices for different kinds of learning and helped them develop their individual strengths. (SM)

Reveals creative and unique ways to assess children's learning in the social studies classroom using tools rather than tests. Provides examples of acrostic poems (each line begins with a letter from a famous person's name) and bio-poems (each line answers a biographical question). (MJP)

This book explores the concept of combining effective classroom techniques for teaching students to become good thinkers with effective strategies to engage students in thoughtful learning of the regular elementary school curriculum. The technique of lesson design and instruction that results is called "infusing critical and creative thinking…

Outlines a dozen alternative formats for oral book reports that can turn this often boring ritual into an engaging learning experience. These creative formats emphasize the inherently important concepts of the books and build in listener accountability through authentic assessment. The formats include creating comic books, mock trials, and…

This paper focuses on the scientific dialogue of a small group following an experiment on motion under gravity. This research was designed to investigate ways in which practical activities can be used to foster links between upper elementary children's spontaneous concepts and Newtonian mechanics. Implicit in this is the notion that teaching…

Discussion about and reflection upon observations which produce cognitive conflict have frequently been promoted as a strategy to enhance conceptual development in science classrooms. As part of the Practical Mechanics in Primary Mathematics project, teachers were urged to elicit children's views and attempt to establish what is now called…

This paper focuses on the evidence of learning in children engaged in small-group discussion with a teacher. The children are considered to have learned if they show progress in the explanations they make, the language they use in the dialogue, or the understanding they show of the dialogue. Motives of the participants in this dialogue are…