Explores the role of vocabulary in reading development and suggests some classroom-tested approaches for nurturing students' vocabulary development and interest. Discusses vocabulary growth, vocabulary and concept development, and active processing of vocabulary. Discusses applications and examples of active-process vocabulary instruction,…

Describes the "Message Board" activity in a preschool classroom (a voluntary sharing of important events or messages on large or student-sized chalkboards). Describes its three stages of learning; how to do it; social interaction; language development; and how it guides emergent literacy and is part of a developmental process. (SR)

Reports on a kindergarten science program in which children explored the phenomenon of environmental change. Discusses the links between science and literacy and how these links help young children create and express their emergent environmental literacy. (JPB)

Makes use of action research, finding it to be the most useful research method in studying the phenomenon of ritual performance in the classroom. Concludes that the ritual process may appear to be complex and formal, yet much of this community building work is performed naturally by many teachers trusting their instincts in everyday situations all…

Demonstrates how students who use background knowledge, context, morphology, and dictionaries learn words more effectively. Adapts a vocabulary web consisting of eight identical bubbles to provide students with a word map, intertwining most of the elements to clarify word meaning described by J. M. Harmon as essential to vocabulary instruction.…

Describes how students learn research skills by making "skinny books"--collections of photocopied articles made into a book with all the parts of a book added--on a topic a student wants to learn more about. Describes how skinny books have been used in a unit on the Holocaust. (SR)

Presents three short articles from elementary teachers with classroom ideas: hosting a poetry spectacular; parents, buddy journals, and reader response; and a format for class sharing that incorporates practice of letter/sound correspondence. (SR)

Maps out the frontier of "kinesthetic English" by describing five movement activities inspired by dance and drama. Discusses the perils and pitfalls of these activities. (RS)

Discusses the importance of correct translation to preserve the spirit and intent of the original language. The article notes that incorrect translations have been a source of embarrassment, a reason for a lack of sales, an urge for incitement, and a cause for destruction of human lives. Some humorous mistranslations are listed. (CK)

Discusses results of the first year of a project that used a cooperative team approach with eighth- and ninth-grade science students to solve discrepant event problems (situations whose outcome is inconsistent with what one would expect). (SR)

Describes how a teacher and her grades one through three children made poetry come alive and serve as an authentic part of their lives. Describes the factors underlying authentic classroom instruction, and notes how poetry moved out from lessons and even school time to become something that will continue to be with many of these children…

Describes the "story face," an adaptation of story mapping that provides a visual framework for understanding, identifying, and remembering elements in narrative text. Discusses several strengths of the story face strategy used with students in grades 1-5: easy to construct, easy to remember, can guide retelling, is collaboratively…

Describes the Guided Lecture Procedure (GLP), a procedure that requires students to suspend all notetaking and listen carefully during an approximately 20-minute lecture, followed by an active notetaking and small group interaction phase. Adds one extra requirement in the active notetaking phase: requiring each learner to write a question for the…

Outlines a vocabulary strategy that transforms students into "word detectives," while immersing them in reading and encouraging them to find out the meaning of unknown words. Describes how "lead detectives" use graphic organizers, briefings on word "suspects," and notes several extensions to this activity. (SR)

Describes how the authors redesigned their business communications course module on employment communication to make extensive use of Web resources. Discusses how they evaluated which Web resources to include, selected high quality sites, and integrated Web resources with more traditional class pedagogies. Offers five guidelines for implementing…