Describes how the author uses the "Witch's Hat" (a modification of the Gaussian Curve) in both college developmental English classes and undergraduate reading education courses to teach story structure. (SR)

Compares Susan Smith's murder of her two children to a myth figure familiar to southwestern Mexican Americans, La llorna. Summarizes the La llorna story, in which the main character has all that is important taken from her, and kills her two children, later committing suicide to join them. Presents six different ways to dramatize the story. (PA)

Describes the development of an elementary school curriculum on farms to give students a knowledge and appreciation of the farm as a food source and of the steps involved moving food from the farm to the table. Specific activities are suggested, and appropriate book titles are recommended. (Contains 10 references.) (LRW)

Describes an activity in which students in a creative writing class write and revise poems, and then bake pastries, offering both to an audience of around 50 which assembles to enjoy the event. (SR)

Defines tessellations as closed geometric shapes that completely cover a surface without gaps or overlaps. Suggests how they can be used in technology class activities. (JOW)

Describes enhancing stories with elementary school students through the use of musical sound. Discusses getting started, the story, creating stories with musical sound, and the role of the music specialist. (SR)

Outlines three major challenges faced in teaching intercultural business communication, and discusses how teachers can meet these challenges to assure that students become effective intercultural managers and communicators. Outlines several specific activities to improve students' intercultural business communication skills. (SR)

Describes the author's experience conjoining her academic training and background in publishing to encourage her students to think about the larger context of their writing. Finds that a wealth of new options and pedagogic techniques become possible when extra-academic experience is brought into the classroom. (SG)

Argues that when introductory activities to the classics begin with background information, it can upstage or confine the life of the story, and shows little faith in the students as readers or in the literature itself. Suggests sometimes letting the literature begin, and then helping students make sense of it. Discusses examples from "To Kill a…

Describes an easy, inexpensive, and effective classroom experiment to evaluate population distributions. (CCM)

Discusses the value of tall tales for children and focuses on tall tale heroines that have become more prevalent and offer models of strong, resourceful, undaunted women. Includes examples of popular tall tale heroines and offers suggestions for class activities. (LRW)

Africa is made up of fifty-three nations and covers an area greater than the United States, China, Japan, and Europe combined. It is estimated that more than 800 languages are spoken in Africa. Some fifty African languages have more than half a million speakers each, but many others are spoken by relatively few people (Columbia Encyclopedia 2001).…

This column describes the book, "The Tarantula Scientist," that features the work of arachnologist Sam Marshall, a scientist who studies spiders and their eight-legged relatives. Marshall is one of only four or five scientists who specializes in the study of tarantulas. The informative text and outstanding photographs follow Sam as he…

This article addresses how to help students develop an aptitude for seeing relationships between elements and puzzling out new forms in doing so. Four different approaches are presented. Each illustrates a way that industrial designers work in considering the form of a product. A classroom activity is included.

Just imagine the excitement in the classroom when Johnny Appleseed strides in. Barefoot and dressed in a burlap sack, he-well, actually, it's you dressed up as Johnny-wears a tin pan for a hat and smiles as he relates the reason for his visit. Fall is apple season, and he's here to explain how all the beautiful fall apples were produced. The story…