Reading, writing, and reflecting can be used as tools during teachers' professional development opportunities. Various forums and activities that support an evolving view of professional development tend to encourage active participation and decision-making, reflective practice, and constructing knowledge based on discussions and readings. Book…

Written for elementary school teachers who want to help their students delve into poetry, this book grows out of a comparison between gardening and writing poetry. Students at the alternative school founded by the book's author work and play on a plot of land near the school; inside, they work and play with words and imagery. Many examples of…

Responding to complaints by New York City area employers about the lack of communication skills of City University of New York (CUNY) graduates, Baruch College (a CUNY college with a specialization in business) initiated a new program of communication-intensive courses to address the problem. One such course involved intercultural communication.…

The technique of Soundscripting, the addition of sound cues and sound effects to the canonical pages of any play, is flexible enough to be done at no cost or with all the advantages of modern media. In class, the use of Shakespearean radio dramas or comedies can be effective. The long-term process in class involves four major steps and may take…

This activity notebook is intended to help French-speaking students in Alberta, Canada, develop reflective reading practices. Following an introduction and information (with graphics) on the notebook's organization, the notebook is divided into three sections of reading strategies: the first section contains three activities, the second section…

Designed to better acquaint U.S. teenagers with their counterparts in India, the four lesson plans and supplementary materials contained in this document ask students to compare their lives with those of Indian teenagers in the following areas: education, recreation, dating/marriage, and problems. (DB)

This book provides about 130 short, easily-prepared activities to supplement the longer teaching procedures that make up the main body of an English course. Suitable for elementary to advanced levels, the activities presented in the book can serve as a quick warm-up for the students, an idea for a brief vocabulary review, a light filler to provide…

Since students enter college with a basic knowledge of the mechanics of writing, including grammar, spelling, and punctuation, most student writing mistakes amount to a failure to see what they have actually written. Thus, instructors must help students to apply knowledge they already have and to see their own errors through careful proofreading.…

Speaking activities should be stressed along with reading experiences in teaching-learning situations. It is important for learners to develop needed skills in reporting to others in a group setting. The teacher and the pupils in the classroom should support each other so that satisfying experiences in oral communication are an end result.…

A classroom companion to "Word History: A Guide to Understanding the English Language," this book provides teachers with additional information to help them include the study of word history in their classroom routine. The book presents suggestions and activities that can be used to challenge students to play with words; to give teachers…

Developed by the participants of the Huntington Theatre Company's Master Works Study in Shakespeare, this collection presents single lesson plans and unit plans for teaching Elizabethan drama. The collection presents 12 lesson plans (spanning one or a few days of instruction) and 15 unit plans (ranging over several weeks) suitable for secondary…

By meeting with authors and discovering what inspires them, students can gain insights about the act of writing and also come to realize that even professional writers experience joys and frustrations when developing their craft. Authors provide natural contexts that help students to improve their reading and to enrich their vocabulary. Parents,…

The jigsaw reading technique maximizes the interactive basis of cooperative learning. The advantages of cooperative learning are that it increases student independence; promotes peer teaching; can be used in multi-level classrooms; can be used in a variety of content areas; can be adapted for use in all age groups; promotes individual and group…

Using the pocket classics can be a painless way to introduce the classics to eighth-grade students. Condensed versions of the classics can take the sting out of the reading, stimulate students' interest, and help prepare them for high school. To offer students in one eighth-grade class some control over their own learning, a contract system was…

This 3-year drama curriculum is designed to promote awareness, foster development, and encourage the use of imagination, creativity, co-operation, self-discipline, analysis and synthesis, self-expression, self-confidence, responsibility, communication, and cultural heritage. The curriculum is organized around a set of drama elements which are…