Describes how an eighth-grade language-arts teacher teaches poetry via performance. Describes how she introduces poetry, performance, and audience. Shows how students (even non-readers and non-achievers) quickly show great eagerness to do poetry with enthusiasm, excitement, and energy; and now perform locally. Includes a poetry portfolio outline…

Presents a conversation with eminent educator Dorothy Strickland, designated 1998 Outstanding Educator in the Language Arts. Discusses her books, being a "career mom," her role in writing the report "Becoming a Nation of Readers," the cycles that reading education seems to go through, professional development, "Reading…

Examines "the ways in which educators have not taken up social and cultural understandings of the teaching and learning of literacy." Concludes that the challenge for educators and policy makers is to make use of what is known about the cognitive, linguistic, and sociocultural processes involved in the education of all children. (SG)

Describes how three middle-school teachers incorporated popular culture media into their content area classes (eighth-grade physical science, seventh-grade language arts, and seventh-grade social studies). Discusses how studying popular culture encourages adolescents to think critically. Discusses issues of planning, fitting into existing…

Shares how the study of insects became a focal point for cross-curricular convergence in the author's classroom. Describes the design of a unit of study that focused on entomology but integrated academic areas, especially language arts. Concludes that students must develop a sense of interdependence and an understanding of possible relationships…

Argues that, taught in the context of writing, grammar can enhance and improve students' writing. Offers classroom examples showing how: good preparation for writing fosters good grammar and detail; students can use grammatical and syntactic constructions used by professional authors as models for their own writing; and how to help students learn…

Describes two projects undertaken with the author's high school English classes in which students chose writing they wished to share with their own community, and then published it, in one case selling their class anthology to selected businesses around town. Describes the increase in enthusiasm for writing and care and professionalism caused by…

This second installment of an article on a collaborative project involving high school and elementary students focuses on cooperative learning techniques with computers in language arts. Topics include classroom design, hands-on learning, new teaching and learning perspectives, sample assignments, the down side of technology, and recommendations.…

Discusses the benefits of linking schools in different parts of the world. Provides a list of what to do and what not to do in setting up such a program. Describes some of the opportunities available to teachers and students. (DDR)

Describes using an outstanding portfolio created by an average fifth grader to study and reflect on the author's teaching and to consider connections between her teaching, the Michigan Language Arts Content Standards, and her District's new standards-based curriculum. Discusses the portfolio process, preparing for portfolio presentations, and the…

Explores issues of access, gender, and collaboration as they relate to a middle-school class and its magazine project that developed the school's first online literary and art magazine. Presents one way that writing for online publication fits within a language-arts curriculum. Addresses ways collaboration between a university teacher, a…

Discusses the use of children's literature to integrate language arts and mathematical problem solving in the middle school classroom. Considers selecting a book and writing the language arts and problem solving lessons; describes the process of creating and solving a mathematical problem based on a story. (JPB)

Introduces the Science and Math Investigative Learning Experiences (SMILE) program. Presents an air quality problem as an example of an integrated challenge problem activity developed by the SMILE program. Explains the process of challenge problems and provides a list of the National Science Education Standards addressed by challenge problems.…

Discusses the use of rubrics in the music classroom, focusing on a description of rubrics, using rubrics for writing assignments and to assess performance and instruction, obtaining student input when creating rubrics, and the benefits of rubrics. Provides sample rubrics. (CMK)

Presents a list of World Wide Web sites that can help teachers with research assignments, curriculum boosters, and class activities. The sites include gateways to learning, mathematics references, social studies references, language arts references, and science references. Each listing includes the name, the Web address, and a brief description.…