Provides: (1) background information on ways weather influences human lives; (2) activities related to this topic; and (3) a ready-to-copy page with weather trivia. Each activity includes an objective, list of materials needed, recommended age level(s), subject area(s), and instructional strategies. (JN)

Provides background information and student activities on bird habitats, how birds have adapted to living in these habitats, and bird migration. Each activity includes an objective, recommended age level(s), subject area(s), list of materials needed, and procedures. Ready-to-copy student materials (puzzles and worksheets) are included. (JN)

Describes the objectives and background of a project designed to implement change in a school district's written communication program and analyzes the data obtained from writing evaluation forms. (HOD)

Traces history of instructional technology, including Skinner's work, Gagne's task analytic approach, and contemporary efforts associated with the cognitive revolution. It is suggested that an understanding of cognitive development improves earlier approaches by adapting them directly to students' cognitive development levels. Recent instructional…

Describes observations of mother-child dyads during reading aloud events. Traces the changes in the mothers' interactional strategies as the children grew over the six-month period, and the mothers adapted to the experiential, linguistic, and literacy background of the children to construct meaning from the text. (HTH)

Discusses the logical and psychological significance of video games, microcomputer prose adventures, and computer programing. Explores the implications of these for teachers as humanists. (HTH)

Highlights children as a source of information about curriculum development. Observes how and why some first grade children write, and how this may affect teachers' instructional assumptions. (HTH)

An economics program designed for junior high and senior high school students indicates that learning economic content tends to improve a student's ability in social studies skills and, indirectly, also improves language arts and quantitative skills. (Author/RM)

The success of the Kamehameha Early Education Program (KEEP) in addressing the academic plight of Hawaiian children by utilizing natal cultural data for curriculum design and development in the education of Hawaiian children is examined. Rationale and approaches for balancing the home culture and the school agenda are outlined. (BS)

Describes learning activities that promote the teaching of reading and writing together within the context of basal materials. Presents an example of how these activities were used in a second-grade classroom. (FL)

Tells English teachers how to develop a speech program using skills that are similar to those used in essay writing. Shows how the following steps in the speech-making process can be divisions in the course: purpose, audience, content, delivery, and evaluation. (EL)

Discusses ERIC resources on the ways reading teachers can work with parents to enhance school age children's literacy in the home. (HTH)

Presents the "Englishes" of children from different social backgrounds that are reflected in the forms and functions of their individual ways of communicating. Discusses implications of these language varieties for the classroom. (HTH)

Explores four drafts of a child's story about the disappearance of television, showing how the later draft suggests the writer's interest in questions about the nature of reality, and how the student grew as writer. (HTH)

Explores several concepts relevant to instructional materials that emerged from seminars sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English and the International Reading Association. Describes how basal readers--so prevalent in instruction--fall short of these concepts, and what can be done to improve instruction. (HTH)