Impromptu speaking is a typical exercise in communication-focused courses. This format is often used to practice reducing or assess speaking anxiety, getting to know one another, and delivering project updates and ceremonial remarks. For students to practice their skills in quick thinking and speech preparation, instructors commonly have students…

The objective of this research was to determine if and to what extent students' learning of geographic concepts can be improved through incorporation of hands-on play with Play-Doh® and LEGO® and geospatial technologies, specifically drones. The project team conducted six months of biweekly, collaborative instruction at Comstock Middle School in…

As educators and business people consider what children need to be successful in this rapidly changing society, creative and critical thinking, problem solving, communication, collaboration, and persistence are recognized as the most important skills for success in education and the workforce. Among these, creative thinking is referred to most…

With a Foreword by Hugh Starkey and Audrey Osler, and Afterwords by Graham Crookes, Hilary Janks and Allan Luke, this book promotes critical language education and illustrates how a critical agenda can be enacted in English language education in real classrooms. It presents four cases located in primary and secondary schools in the province of…

This study makes use of visual methodology to achieve insights regarding Iranian ELT student teachers' professional identities. Accordingly, the researcher makes an attempt to investigate the 51 male-female student teachers' professional identities through their drawings. Social constructivism, hermeneutics, and grounded theory inspire this study…

This research explored dream science classrooms of primary school third and fourth-grade students. Research is designed as a case study. The students were first asked to illustrate their dream science classroom and produce a short description of their drawings. Second, they were asked to write their expectations of their teachers, their…

A century of research has shown that culturally relevant, responsive, and sustaining literacy teaching is essential to teaching all students well and is especially crucial for students of color, who most often attend urban schools. The authors share one innovative and culturally sustaining literacy practice that critically centers kindergarten and…

Teaching financial literacy is important at all stages of life, but is often neglected with elementary students. In this article, the authors describe a strategy for teaching financial literacy using the books about Max and Ruby by Rosemary Wells. These books can help introduce the five key concepts of financial literacy: scarcity, exchange,…

As a college literature teacher, the goal of the author is to enable students to create their own meaning from their encounter with a text, respecting the text's sources, limits, contexts, and possibilities as well as their own. Fostering this creative response is among the greatest challenges and rewards of the profession. While teaching EN102:…

This study visually and linguistically examines the various manifestations of power and language in mainstream and alternative children's picture books, and analyzes the students' linguistic production by utilizing critical discourse analysis (CDA) as a tool to uncover misrepresentations of race, class, and language. The aim of the study is…

This article describes a cooperative project between eighth graders and first graders called "Going Green in the Neighborhood." The project entailed the first grade students sketching home designs on paper to make a model community, and the eighth grade students taking those drawings and making them into 3D computer models and then…

The figure has "figured" prominently in the choice of subject matter for many artists throughout history. Whether they may choose to depict it in an abstract or expressive form, most artists are quite capable of realistic portrayals of the human form. And all people know that one of the very first drawings made by young children is a symbol for…

Semiotic work is principled engagement in the making of meaning. The semiotic work of school-based learning entails interpretation and expression framed by the curriculum and the social practices of the classroom, and realized multimodally in diverse pedagogic interactions and activities. Micro-examination of the relationship between a teacher's…

While several studies have documented young children's (K-2) stereotypic views of scientists and scientific work, few have examined students' views of the social nature of scientific work and the strategies effective in broadening these views. The purpose of this study is to examine how stories about scientists influence 1st-grade students' views…

The genre of tall tales is characterized by fictional, often intentionally ridiculous, stories that provide a reason for or origin of a natural phenomenon. Tall tales are often based on characters who are unusually adept or powerful; they are particularly appealing to children who are cognitively capable of understanding the tongue-in-cheek humor…