In this article, the author discusses the instructional challenges faced by educators this year in the 12,500-student Recovery School District (RSD), the state-run system that took over most of New Orleans' public schools after the storm in August 2005. Roughly 85% of the district's students scored at least two years behind grade level in reading…

"Fast Track" is a pseudonym for an accelerated, advanced language arts program for verbally gifted and high potential students in grades 6-8. The critical thinking model used for "Fast Track" was gleaned from Coalition of Essential Schools founder Ted Sizer's Habits of Mind: significance, evidence, connections, perspective, and supposition, as…

California high school English language arts teachers (n=467) representing 79 high schools and 49 school districts responded to a survey regarding their classroom assessment practices. A random sampling of 115 teachers completed a follow-up survey that focused on beliefs and values relative to assessment. Research questions were: (1) What are the…

A thematic approach provides the best opportunity for children to discover the linkage among science, mathematics, and language arts. This document examines the different physical properties of water in the forms of frost, snowflakes, snow, and ice. The seven integrated investigations explore freezing, melting, insulation, how snow affects the…

A thematic approach provides the best opportunity for children to discover the linkage among science, mathematics, and language arts. This document explores the water cycle. Investigations are divided into six key areas: (1) comparing the size of raindrops; (2) learning to measure rain; (3) making rainbows; (4) exploring the principles of…

This essay relates the way educator Dorothy Howard intuitively used intercultural education techniques to motivate students. Howard encouraged students to relate home experiences and family traditions when fulfilling writing assignments. She also used the rhymes, rhythms, and metaphors of playground games to study poetry, grammar, composition, and…

This resource book is one of a series containing lesson plans for grades 1-3 designed to support children's literature books sharing familiar social studies themes. "Long Ago Times" presents eight different children's books related to the theme. For each book social studies concepts are presented, followed by four activities called "windows." Some…

This resource book is one of a series containing lesson plans for grades 1-3 designed to support children's literature books sharing familiar social studies themes. "Journeys" presents eight different children's books related to the theme. For each book social studies concepts are presented, followed by four activities called "windows." Some of…

This resource book is one in a series containing lesson plans for grades 1-3 designed to support children's literature books sharing familiar social studies themes. "Across America" presents eight different children's books related to the theme. For each book social studies concepts are presented, followed by four activities called "windows." Some…

This workbook offers a variety of quick language activities that develop grade 4-6 students' associative-reasoning and problem-solving skills. The activities in the workbook cover vocabulary development, classifying, sequencing, following directions, and word recognition. Sections of the workbook are Categories; Ordering; Missing Vowels; Think…

This digest discusses the different dialects children bring to the school environment and how U.S. schools deal with these differences. Reference is made to the Ann Arbor (Michigan) case in which a group of African-American parents sued the local school system on behalf of their children, claiming the school was denying their children equal…

Study groups are both a complement and an alternative to traditional staff development. Becoming a community of adult learners is a complex process involving a number of ingredients: purpose, logistics, resources, transfer of learning, electronic networking, sustenance, and assessment. These ingredients are not meant to take the place of…

Using a literature-based thematic unit to teach language arts in concert with science, social studies, mathematics, and art, a Scottish teacher instilled in her 6- and 7-year-old pupils an understanding of their own lives, a love for language, and a feeling of satisfaction and pride in their accomplishments. The teacher developed a topic based on…

This unit of study introduces high-ability junior high school students to the aspect of grammar which is usually missing from technically oriented studies of grammar, namely, the wonder and pleasure of grammar or grammar appreciation. It presents grammar as a powerful way for one's mind to make ideas out of language, and a way of inspecting one's…

A study examined the levels of comprehension generated by questions in story-related and story-retell activities in the Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition (CIRC) program. A sample of 500 questions from CIRC materials for grades 4, 5, and 6 were classified. Results indicated that the majority of story-related and story-retell questions…