A potpourri of activities from teachers working with elementary and middle school-aged children is featured in this journal issue. Regular features include an introductory letter, an article on elementary school activities, project updates, reviews, and announcements. The articles are as follows: (1) "Yesterday is local history to fourth…

The document provides United States history teachers with suggested teaching techniques from a variety of popular culture genre used during the thirties to help secondary students examine various social, cultural, economic, and political events, that encompass the Great Depression era. The popular culture forms described and discussed as…

Intended for people of all ages and with a history of successful use in schools, workshops, and prison, this book is a guide through a two-week plan of lessons to teach poetry writing. Each lesson builds on the one that came before, and all include poems. Following a preface, the 11 chapters are: (1) Basic Tools; (2) Extending the Metaphor; (3)…

A study was conducted in 1986 to ascertain factors associated with creative summer session programs among U.S. universities and colleges. All were classified by Carnegie type as Doctoral granting, Research, and Comprehensive; all similar Canadian universities were considered, and 14 were included. Areas examined included: institutional…

Writers' comments on writing can help teachers incorporate within their classrooms the idea that writing is a process of discovery. They can remind students and teachers how important enthusiasm, motivation, and reinforcement are. Even though such comments are not saying anything new, saying the same thing in new terminology can lead to new…

In two, linked articles, appearing in this and the next edition, Maria Osowiecki shares an account of a five-lesson enquiry, based on the concept of historical significance (National Curriculum Key Element 2e) for mixed ability Year 8. She wanted to experiment with an array of creative teaching techniques that would appeal to a wide range of…

Advocates the abandonment by teachers of some of their traditional viewpoints (historical and cultural), goals, and methods and, through the use of technology in some cases, proposes developing closer ties to the children and the community of which they are a part. (SF)

Objects assembled in nonrepresentational fashion from tinker toy pieces are the starting point for a technical description writing assignment designed to increase the students' awareness of audience while at the same time giving them practice in description, analysis, and active judgment. Having been separated into two groups, each facing a…

A way in which poetry can be successfully approached in the classroom is discussed in this book about teaching poetry. It presents a method by which teachers can teach students to read poems rather than teaching them about poems. The first chapter discusses and criticizes the "what-does-this-poem-mean" approach to teaching poetry. The…

In this book, designed for both teachers in training and practicing teachers, an attempt is made to translate into methodology those principles of creative thinking and creative development derived from the last 10 years of reading research. Part 1, "The Nature of Creative Teaching," contains discussions of basic principles of creative teaching,…

Several definitions of the concept of "creativity" are examined in the introductory remarks of this article concerning foreign language instruction. Selected examples of innovational approaches to "creative" foreign language teaching are presented and underscore the belief that creative instruction resides in the ability of the instructor to…

Teaching contests using experimental teaching units are suggested as a means of identifying some teaching skills that are effective for all contexts (e.g., different grades and subject areas) and those that are effective in some contexts. (JD)

This article reviews current efforts at educational reform in light of what is required to help teaching become more characterized by the spirit, processes, and products of systematic inquiry. Practitioner inquiry is defined, its importance is discussed, and the structural implications of teaching as inquiry are considered. (TE)

Shows traditionally trained English teachers that the insights obtained through advanced literary study are central to the teaching of technical and scientific writing and demonstrates that recent composition scholarship has shown technical writing to be an imaginative, creative, and thus, poetic endeavor. (EL)

Problem-solving can be an exercise in mystification for some students. Six suggestions are given for presenting word problems in mathematics in ways that make them more accessible and comprehensible for young students. (PP)