Describes a fun outdoor assignment whereby secondary school students form into groups of four or five and learn about the importance of narrative setting by drawing on sidewalks with chalk. Reviews the five basic elements of setting: temporal, geographical, cultural, historical, and environmental. (TB)

Argues that deficiencies in critical reading and thinking skills contribute to errors in problem solving and erroneous conclusions. Describes an activity that is designed to allow students to discover their own errors during an in-class analysis. (DDR)

Discusses current emphasis on individualization and meeting Head Start Program Performance Standards in this area. Assessment of individual needs, evaluation of information and planning practices comprise the individual approach to learning. Documentation in the form of personalized lesson plans provides a record of health, safety, and nutrition…

Describes GEM (Gateway to Educational Materials) that provides easy, fast, and free access to lesson plans, curriculum units, and other educational materials on the Internet. Discusses interaction between users and content providers; GEM versus search engines; how a GEM record is created; and the metadata used in GEM records. (LRW)

This article offers a guide to teaching the history of science to students with learning disabilities and provides a lesson template designed to engage students in a specific science event from the past. Activities including hypothesis testing and an historical role-play teach the vocabulary of natural selection and evolution using the landmarked…

The author of "Tomie dePaola: His Art and His Stories" uses her study of the work and the life of one of the most popular and acclaimed authors and illustrators of books for children today to demonstrate the research process for the classroom. Suggestions are provided for incorporating research into an author-artist study unit or for…

Geometrical representations can help students generalize arithmetic to algebra. Includes several examples including triangle numbers and models of cubes. (Author/MM)

Introduces a unit consisting of two lessons on paper and recycling. Investigates the properties of recycled paper and includes a paper making activity. (YDS)

In this article, the authors describe an activity developed to assist students with constructing their own understanding of Earth's history and provide questions to help teach the geologic time scale. The lesson is aligned to the following National Science Education Standards: Science as Inquiry, Earth's History, and Nature of Science. While…

This article provides teaching tips and materials related to recorder lesson. Teaching Recorder in the Music Classroom, by Fred Kersten, compiles more current recorder information than any other resource. In planning instruction, the major determining factor seems to be Rote or Note. This allows instructors to take familiar repertoire that…

Thousands of years ago, mathematicians thought about numbers in terms of geometry. Numbers had shapes, and by thinking about the shapes, mathematicians could do a lot of things with numbers that are now recognized as algebra. This document contains a lesson plan for students to learn the relationship between numbers--all while developing algebraic…

Various cultures should be represented in the classroom and students should be exposed to a variety of perspectives and experiences that could broaden their worldviews. Teachers should spend less time trying to learn all the facts and more time planning effective lessons and letting the literature speak for itself.

One topic that is frequently taught at any and all grade levels is elections, particularly during presidential election years. There are numerous organizations that produce materials and maintain websites to help students at all grade levels learn about and even participate in mock election activities. There is, however, one aspect of elections…

This exploratory study examines student interpretations of pleasure and danger messages about sex in sexuality lesson plans. Scripting theory suggests that students do not simply hear and enact sexual scripts presented to them in sexuality education, but instead actively interpret, revise, weigh and attach meaning to these messages. We conducted a…

Social Security is a contemporary topic that exemplifies a social issue-centered approach to social studies, one that allows students to get beyond the school walls to analyze a contemporary topic that ultimately affects virtually everyone. In this article, the authors provide a brief history of Social Security, describe how it is funded and…