Describes innovative programs for teaching elementary school students. In Illinois, students learn about the artists Raphael, Michelangelo, Leonardo, and Donatello using the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. An Oregon program prints student poetry and places it on cafeteria tables. In rural Texas, students learn about restaurant etiquette through play…

Identifies fundamental questions in the design, selection, and assessment of activities that need further scholarly attention, reviews recent findings, and offers a conceptual analysis and a list of principles as a potential tool for constructing and assessing curricular activities. (CJS)

Discusses functional literacy activities (reading and writing activities used to achieve some real-life goal) and their usefulness in providing motivation as well as practice opportunities for young children. Notes four such activities: name cards, signs and labels, daily schedule, and references. (SR)

Contains specific teaching ideas of six writing teachers at community or four-year colleges. Includes suggestions on teaching grammar and punctuation, eliminating plagiarism, defining technical writing, and writing character analyses. (PRA)

Argues that the use of nature literature in science, history, religion, geography, etc., classrooms can sharpen students' observation skills, help students learn to value the world around them, and introduce environmental issues such as man's threats to nature. Describes sample activities. (DMM)

Offers a comprehensive sequence of projects to help journalism students learn how intricate and essential writer-editor collaborations are and the effort needed to build and maintain them. (SR)

Offers five tips from writing teachers on writing activities that work well in their classrooms. (SR)

This article explains the use of the origins of American English and the dictionary to teach multiculturalism to elementary school students. It suggests classroom activities that help students explore the cultural roots behind words and appreciate the ways words have been created. Esperanto and the development of an international language are also…

Establishes the logical validity of instructional activities for teaching reading evaluatively. Supports the view that the 20 characteristics of literate students who read evaluatively were translated into valid instructional activities by experienced classroom teachers. (HB)

Calculator riddles can interest elementary students in math. Solving riddles where a numerical answer turned upside down reveals a word answer provides an amusing way to practice mathematical operations and learn about calculator functions. The paper explains how to create word riddles and includes student work pages. (SM)

Describes teaching methods and techniques found to be useful by practicing teachers, including "Grammargrams on the Network"; "Students Write Responses to Reading Assignments"; "Letters to the Editor"; "How Students Learn What Critiques Are"; "The College Essay: A Collaborative Parody"; "What…

Describes a vocabulary lesson in a seventh-grade language arts class that incorporates making predictions with vocabulary acquisition. (SR)

Discusses a project in which kindergarten students combined African history, communicating through music, and HyperStudio stacks and video. Notes that the project provided the students with lessons in friendship, awareness, and communication. (RS)

Suggests that not everything in education has to be evaluated in terms of cognitive outcome measures. Describes a computer-mediated communication project that involved sixth-grade students in a private school in Montreal and slightly older students in a mainly Inuit town in the far northern part of Quebec. Discusses the actual benefits of the…

Presents a classroom which teaches coalition building skills as a means of resolving controversy, based on finding common ground between disputants. (SR)