Describes the context and support structures involved in the implementation of a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded professional development program designed to train elementary teachers to use exemplary science curriculum materials. Identifies components for the successful implementation of systemic reform efforts including purposeful…

Describes how the author became critically aware of the dynamics of literacy and race in a composition classroom. Introduces his students to rap music as a legitimate literacy and a type of literature in its own right. Describes the lesson plan he used in the project and explains some of the theory that inspired his classroom inquiry. (SG)

Describes how in order to promote social interaction among the struggling readers, the author decided to have them work in pairs at a table in the back of the room in the same way the teacher held conferences. Engages the struggling readers in retelling the story the teacher read aloud during the whole-class lesson. (SG)

Describes how one teacher educator uses book clubs as a way to model and confirm the value and power of shared reading experiences. Considers how preservice teachers will act upon their new knowledge gained in book clubs to inform their planning and practice. Suggests bringing book clubs into classrooms. (SG)

Describes how a teacher and researcher in Australia engaged students in chat-room discussion as a bridge between speaking and writing. Discusses the characteristics of formal written argumentation and recent theoretical reemphasis on its rhetorical and dialogical nature. Describes the classroom strategies devised to develop the students' ability…

Considers that the comparison between children's success in learning new names in the Harry Potter books versus the relative failure of adults to learn new names connected to the September 11th attacks provides a real-world situation from which principles can be deduced to help educators succeed in teaching vocabulary lessons. Offers classroom…

Presents a casebook on the song "American Pie" that considers how to define the parameters of short narrative. Describes the creation of an end-of-term cumulative writing project that the authors have successfully employed for the last decade. Discusses how they put together a casebook that teaches the necessary research skills. (SG)

Provides and defends four guidelines as a foundation to study ways to incorporate history into classroom lessons: maintain a continued research interest in teaching history; limit to technical rather than scientific discourse; focus on English-language texts; and focus on American texts, authors, and practices. Works within the guidelines to show…

Describes an eight-step writing assignment that is a novel way to test students' writing skills in a way that is intriguing, interactive, and team-oriented, with built-in multiple deadlines requiring quick creativity and cognitive knowledge. Presents a poetry writing exercise in which the student is asked to write a short poem in the voice of…

Recommends a handful of activities that have consistently proven both useful to the author and helpful to his students. Describes activities including the Thesaurus Game, Word Pairs, Signs and Notices, the Sears Roebuck Game, the Mental Symposium, and Cubing. Concludes that these six devices prod students in directions that help them concentrate…

Argues that students need to become aware that heroism applies not just to physical strength or violence in conflict resolution, but also to the heroic act of trying to find meaning through the process of composition. Points out concepts which can help students discover the concerns of each story for themselves. (SG)

Reveals the journey of a new teacher of theatre. Takes readers on her journey of self-discovery from student to student teacher to bi-lingual theatre teacher. Raises timely questions about the boundaries and barriers felt as drama is taught in unfamiliar settings. (SG)

Considers how nonfiction is the genre most likely to spur children's passion and wonder for learning. Describes how educators teach students that their best writing teachers are the authors they love, not the encyclopedias they need for beginning research. (SG)

Asks students reading "The Kilimanjaro Device" to focus on how it illustrates a most central idea about the human condition: how to best live in time so that our lives are happy, fulfilled and right. Presents background for "The Kilimanjaro Device," discusses Bradbury's rescue mission, and the principle of good timing.…

Outlines a professional writing course based on a proposal format that ties the classroom to the student's world. Suggests teaching document forms such as memos, letters, and reports in the context of a comprehensive proposal format. Argues that the proposal can serve as the basis and motivation for an introductory professional writing course. (SG)