States that having students write poems while listening to a cassette tape of "Earth Spirit" by R. Carlos Nakai has been a remarkably successful exercise with students in grades 2-12. Discusses exercises in which the author reads three poems while the tape plays, and the students then write poems of their own. (PA)

Activities designed to acquaint students with the library media center are listed: find examples of fractions; estimate the total number of books; find information on a topic; pick favorite leads; locate the most and least popular books; find animal heroes; discover answers to questions; redesign the library; select a book for a secret partner;…

Discusses good mathematical tasks and where they may be found. Good tasks are authentic, are challenging, pique the curiosity of students, encourage students to make sense of mathematical ideas, encourage multiple perspectives, and nest skill development in the context of problem solving. (MKR)

Middle-school students can be given the appealing writing assignment early in a Spanish course: writing to someone their own age about topics they can handle linguistically. (Author)

Discusses approaches used in composition classrooms that address the needs of students living in an increasingly multicultural society. Describes strategies that introduce students to the academic discourse community, and those that emphasize the students' own experiences. Discusses the use of textbooks that emphasize multiculturalism in their…

Describes a first-grade project in which students created theme-based picture books. Each student's five- to eight-page book contained a title, picture, informative sentence, and diagram on each page. Students then created tables of contents and alphabetized and indexed their books. (MDM)

Presents a case study and writing assignment used in a business communication class that help students uncover assumptions that may disadvantage both females and males when diversity within and between gender groups is ignored. (SR)

Describes a project incorporating writing-to-learn activities into an introductory finance class. Discusses benefits to students and teachers. (SR)

Defines the term "cultural model" as the set of assumptions a particular group has, or the kinds of goals a group strives for, or the attitudes that shape how one cultural group reacts to another group. Shows how cultural models shape student responses to Richard Pick's short story "I Go Along." Suggests writing assignments that reflect on…

This study surveyed the use of laptop computers by 10 college students with visual impairments. Students used the computers about 10 to 15 hours a week to complete assignments as well as to take notes in class. The laptops fostered students' independence and improved their efficiency. (Author/DB)

Describes a writing exercise--writing cliffhangers--that uses six class periods to engage students in the writing process and finishes by publishing a book of students' cliffhanger stories. (SR)

Suggests that the use of writing in the social studies classroom deepens the meaning and the students' understanding of the content. Discusses the use of journal writing, the guided writing procedure, interviews, and letter writing in the social studies classroom. (RS)

Disputes the claim that narrative writing is of lesser value than expository forms, and argues that narrative holds great potential for use in writing curricula. Describes a summer science institute for minority students in which narrative was utilized. (HB)

Presents six teaching suggestions from classroom teachers regarding creative scenarios with literary figures, lemons in the classroom (to aid descriptive writing), conferences using a computer, organizational patterns in writing, an epistolary icebreaker in composition, and using five-minute writings as review. (SR)

Presents the first of a series of four articles that offer ideas and activities that can help students see the relevancy of social science in their lives. Focuses on family issues. (SR)