Notes that literature-based reading approaches are becoming increasingly popular in Canada as well as in other parts of North America. Reviews the rationale behind shared book experiences and literary clubs. Provides a variety of language-rich tasks to guide children as they respond to the stories they are reading. (RS)

Provides discussion and critical analysis of the film "School Daze," directed by Spike Lee. Describes how the film was used to attempt to raise student awareness of linguistic variation. Presents details of classroom exercises designed to achieve this objective. (HB)

Describes a year spent teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) in the elementary classroom using a whole-language approach in a nonthreatening environment with lots of writing and student ownership of text. (SR)

Describes a strategy called "Book Club" used with college developmental students through which students come to understand that when they invest something of themselves in the texts they read, the rewards are considerable. (SR)

Describes using a passage from the book "Raney" by Clyde Edgerton as a read-aloud in social studies and language arts classrooms to explore value conflicts, understand cultures, study dialog and to introduce drama. (SR)

Describes a project undertaken at the Alcott School in Concord, Massachusetts, to recycle worn out books in the school library by having fifth graders design and construct attractive book jackets for them. Students select the books themselves and include their own reviews on the inside of the jacket. (MDM)

Presents ideas to help elementary educators teach their students thinking skills through word splashes (collages of words and pictures that help students think and make connections). A student page offers a word splash activity. (SM)

Describes a free writing exercise designed to help first-year college students confront perceptions they have of themselves as learners. (RS)

Describes college classroom exercises that encourage overt appropriation of texts from modern Chinese literature, which, followed by critical analysis, subverts the covert appropriation of the dominant ideology. Notes that these activities in overt appropriation are designed to promote cultural crossings, awareness of others, and awareness of the…

Experienced elementary classroom teachers and substitutes discuss planning ahead for a substitute teacher, suggesting a substitute folder which includes any information to be relayed and a substitute activity bag containing lessons and activities. Games and activities that can be adapted for any grade level are described. (SM)

Discusses a project in which both remedial and gifted seventh grade students wrote a letter to an author. Describes authors' responses and the remarkable effect those responses had on students. (SR)

Use of any theatrical technique in the language learning classroom allows the linking of the verbal and the nonverbal, whereby the student may draw freely on his or her communicative resources. The approach described offers several methods for providing contexts or formats within which to improvise. (CNP)

Argues that increasing students' understanding of communities can help them meet new standards of excellence in public affairs reporting. Describes several approaches to teaching that help prepare students to practice this new community journalism. Presents several teaching methods. (SR)

Argues that all students are gifted in different ways, and proposes that instruction should focus on fostering gifted behaviors rather than on "gifted" students. Defines gifted behaviors that should be fostered and presents a program by which they can be achieved. (HB)

Describes teaching methods and techniques found to be useful by practicing teachers, including (1) "Coming to America"; (2) "Reader-Response Journal Questions"; (3) "Stimulating Class Discussion"; (4) "Group Analysis of Professional Writing"; and (5) "Read a Child's Story." (HB)