Of all the possible tools available to help out English language Learners (ELLs) acquire vocabulary, the use of emotions is one of the most powerful because "we are learning that emotions are the result of multiple brain and body systems that are distributed over the whole person". If we go one step further and connect emotions to…

Problem solving is one of the main competences we seek to teach students at school for use in their future lives. However, when dealing with mathematical problems, teachers encounter a wide variety of difficulties. To foster students' problem-solving skills, the authors developed "strategy keys." Strategy keys can serve as material to…

Enjoyable literacy strategies help elementary teachers reinforce students' mathematics knowledge. This article shares a number of literacy strategies that can easily connect with mathematics. These strategies include word associations, multimeaning word cards, and games. (Contains 7 figures.)

Teachers can build on students' familiarity with and respect for the Harry Potter books to create source-based vocabulary lessons. The idea is to work with the Latin roots that J. K. Rowling uses to create original names for places, people, and magical charms and then to extend students' knowledge through exploration of additional English words…

Skilled reading requires attention to many aspects of print at the same time. Some children demonstrate difficulty in attending flexibly to multiple features of print, often focusing solely on decoding or word-level information. These children often lack the insight that reading is more than decoding; they have a difficult time thinking about…

The paper discusses general types of nonverbal behavior (NVB) and encourages teachers to use NVB influences in the classroom. (Contains eight references.) (LB)

This article presents a novel approach to teaching business ethics to college students by relying on well-known aids to learning new, complex, and/or abstract material. The primary purpose of this article is threefold: (a) to explore some of the reasons why learning the basics of moral philosophies is relatively difficult for many students; (b) to…

Adapting strategies of invention from the new process-oriented rhetoric, the literature teacher can help students understand what they read through prereading exercises. Presenting students with an abstract model of a text's metaphoric structure, the teacher can spark students' immediate and imaginative response to the model, involving them…

Many of the most talented authors and artists of the past and present have shared their thoughts and their gifts with young children through picture books. Many picture books allow young children to explore important ideas and to stretch their minds far beyond rote memorization. Young children absorb knowledge at a very rapid pace. In an age of…

Some tips can assist teachers in guiding each pupil to achieve more optimally, with respect to the ability to read well and reading comprehension. Among these 10 specific tips are: (1) teach individualized phonics in context; (2) assist the student to read in proper thought units by covering up words in sentences for clarification; (3) assist…

Provides an overview of the nature, purpose, and instructional research related to semantic mapping. Offers a vivid description of how semantic mapping was used in a secondary social studies classroom, including how the teacher and students viewed the method. Suggests ideas and resources for interested teachers. (MJP)

To be successful, a vocabulary improvement program should teach vocabulary directly but in a meaningful context, involve teachers and use vocabulary from all content areas, and represent a long term commitment. Strategies promoting an effective program include the following: (1) teaching word consciousness, (2) using materials at students'…

Describes a series of activities designed to teach the content of social studies as well as promote literacy. Most of the activities involve establishing definitions and connections between vocabulary words and key concepts, places, and dates. Includes an exercise using key words and questions to study imperialism and India. (MJP)

Ways in which semantic mapping can be used for general vocabulary development, as a prewriting and prereading activity, as a postreading activity, and as a study skill strategy are presented in this teaching guide. The first two sections provide an introduction to semantic mapping, and outline the three most common uses of semantic mapping as an…

Stressing language development as the prime component of all learning, this resource book presents suggestions to teachers to aid them in developing children's descriptive language. Basic to the described activities is the concept that vocabulary development is essentially concept development, requires a variety of experiences, and results from…