This collection of instructional materials and class activities emphasizes five different situations in which courage is a necessary quality. For each section, lessons are planned to extend the theme through a cross-curricular approach. The topics include: a definition of courage; the courage to resist in the context of the Holocaust; mythical…

This report describes a program that used both critical and creative thinking skills to enhance the educational process in language arts. The targeted population consisted of fourth- and seventh-grade students in two growing, middle-class communities located in northern Illinois. The lack of higher-order thinking skills was documented through…

This report on professional development of English teachers discusses the Dimensions of Teaching as a basis for the judging of performance in the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards [for] Early Adolescence/English Language Arts (NBPTS EA/ELA) assessment. The report focuses on how the professional literature on Models of Teacher…

This book provides parents with more than 70 original, entertaining, and educational ways to help their children master crucial learning skills--each game takes just 10 minutes or less from start to finish. The games presented in the book cover all the important areas of the primary school curriculum: reading, writing, spelling, mathematics,…

A study compared an integrated language arts reading program and a strong phonics basal reading program. Subjects were first graders from five eastern Greenbrier County schools in West Virginia. The control group consisted of students in 15 classrooms, during the 1994-95 school year, when a strong phonics basal reading program was taught and…

The multidimensional nature of self-concept was studied in early elementary school children. In addition, the accuracy of children's self-concept ratings was determined through comparisons with the following external measures of ability: (1) parent ratings; (2) teacher ratings; and (3) academic achievement. Participants in this study were 100…

Delineating the content that must be covered in the elementary schools of the State of Idaho, this guide presents a course of study for instruction in integrated language arts, K-8. Although educators sometimes use the terms interchangeably, the course of study in the guide is not an instructional or curriculum guide--the course of study…

A core curriculum was developed as a result of the Utah State Board of Education's establishment of a policy requiring identification of specific core curriculum standards to be completed by all students in kindergarten through grade 12 as a requisite for graduation from secondary school. The core curriculum represents those standards of learning…

A core curriculum was developed as a result of the Utah State Board of Education's establishment of a policy requiring identification of specific core curriculum standards to be completed by all students in kindergarten through grade 12 as a requisite for graduation from secondary school. The core curriculum represents those standards of learning…

This book consists of creative drama activities that introduce, review, and reinforce content material across the curriculum. Step-by-step procedural outlines and actual scripts are included. Chapter 1, "An Overview," presents a definition of creative drama, describes the benefits of using it in the classroom, and outlines suggestions and…

This unit is designed around a four-week plan integrated into third- and fourth-grade science, social studies, language arts, reading, and art. The unit takes students through specific strategies of creating awareness about issues and to help them become more responsible about pet care, personally and in the community. Each week has a theme,…

The project described in this paper addresses the major issues surrounding content standards, provides a model for their identification, and applies this model to identify standards and benchmarks in subject areas. This update includes a revision of content standards and benchmarks published in earlier updates and the synthesis and identification…

In response to a position paper that called upon the ministry of education in each Canadian province to provide a balanced selection to offerings on the province's authorized list of language arts textbooks, several ministries claimed that a balanced approach to teaching reading was being followed. A letter received from Alberta Education even…

While researchers have long advocated integrating disciplines, practitioners have sometimes viewed the combination of language arts and science for a particular purpose as unnatural and difficult to accomplish. An introductory section of this paper examines the underlying concepts for the integrated approach, that students learn based on what they…

This book argues that parents, by spending 20 minutes each day imparting the wisdom found in its pages, can compensate for the lack of cultural education their children receive in school. Predicated on the idea that there is a certain background "core knowledge" that every American school child should possess, the book can also be used…