Recalls the pleasurable activity of listening to poetry read by a teacher in fifth grade--poems by Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, and Carl Sandburg. Relates that poetry books were in the school library and that the students wrote their own poems. Finds that, 18 years later, teaching begins each day in middle school with poetry. (PA)

Offers an exercise involving popular culture to help students experience the contemporary power of Shakespeare. Explains that after reading a Shakespeare play, students develop new cereal brands based upon the work's plot, characters, or themes, afterward naming, designing, creating, and displaying the cereal package. Combines literary analysis,…

Provides an assignment for a business communication or a public speaking course from junior high to college level. States a minimum of three oral presentations are necessary for the assignment encompassing an announcement of the awards competition, the voting process and incentives for winning an award, and the ceremony held on the last day of…

Presents a variety of mathematical games from all over the world using pen and paper, or single-board setups. (ASK)

Explores the appeal of historical fiction for young readers and describes its place within any school curriculum. Describes a project in Dorset Middle Schools which used historical fiction to teach medieval history and English. Notes that students' historical thinking was improved, their knowledge of medieval world advanced, and their writing was…

Discusses an English teacher's approaches to introducing English-as-a-second-language students to Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet." Notes that the students responded with more enthusiasm than they had to any other selection they had read, and that the teacher had underestimated her students' ability to understand Shakespeare. (RS)

Describes using Think-Pair-Share (a three-step cooperative learning activity) to complement the sentence-generation phase of the Possible Sentences Activity, a highly recommended prereading vocabulary strategy. (SR)

Author/illustrator Pat Cummings talks about drawing, her favorite illustrators, her first book, her work habits, teaching, inspiration, working with other writers, and offers advice to parents, teachers, and children about art. Lists books written and/or illustrated by Cummings, and suggests activities based on her books using art, language arts,…

Suggests three strategies to help students hear the sounds in words: developing phonemic awareness; explore sound/symbol relationships; and discover spelling patterns. This method is most effective if teachers continuously encourage students to think about how these strategies will help them as readers and writers. (SM)

This poetry workshop has students read Monica Gunning's poem about her childhood in Jamaica, create lists of what they want to know more about, search for and share the information, then find poems from other parts of the world. The Gunning poem and lists of resources are included. (SM)

Suggests that authentic discussion is "classroom talk that is purposeful and engaging." Shares two activities that the author has used to create classrooms that are inquiry driven and characterized by an emphasis on dialogue rather than monologue. Describes two activities that utilize seven strategies that are helpful in initiating authentic…

Recollects the author's teaching experiences during the attacks of September 11, 2001. Relives the events that took place in his classroom discussing "White Angel," a short story by Michael Cunningham, in light of the fact that they had no idea what was happening in the area until class was over. Notes that the morning's lesson took on…

Shares five activities for use in the classroom that require active participation in reading by all students. Notes that in addition to ensuring time with text, the activities incorporate repeated reading, a practice that has been demonstrated to have a positive impact on students' reading ability. (SG)

Presents a university teacher educator's perspective and a middle school classroom teacher's perspective of Adrian Fogelin's fiction. Discusses the use of "Crossing Jordan" in the schools. Discusses activities that can be used with this novel. Describes how pre-service teachers learn about teaching literature in the middle schools. Presents four…

Notes that the goal of phonics instruction is to help students develop the alphabetic principle. Explains how the words "explicit" and "systematic" are used in multiple ways in the context of phonics instruction. Suggests that educators should engage in serious discussions about how multiple approaches to phonics instruction…