Argues that it is good to incorporate students into the creative process of building a playground, especially when one of the structures is a complex sculpture. Describes how students participated in the constructing of a playground wall by embedding personal objects into the mortar as decorative embellishments. (DSK)

Suggests that the brightest students in high school classes often suffer from a lack of engagement in the learning process. Reviews four theories of learning and reading. Describes five classroom practices that come from reading education and from units developed by secondary teachers that engage high-ability, low-performing students. Discusses…

Shares an effective teaching strategy (developed by a university student in a content reading practicum) that enthusiastically engaged two reluctant, even confrontational, male seventh graders in a study of "Our Northern Neighbor, Canada." (SR)

Describes how some high school students, encouraged by their theater-loving teacher, suspiciously approached Shakespeare, chose "Macbeth," made the language slowly their own, improvised scenery and costumes, delivered the performance with energy and pride and much extemporizing, and found themselves at last in love with Shakespeare and…

Presents annotations of 30 notable children's books in all genres (published in 1996). Includes suggestions of experiences, activities, and related literature for each work of literature. (RS)

Presents a teaching unit from the Media Awareness Network Web site that introduces students (grades six through nine) to ways in which commercial Web sites collect personal information from children and issues surrounding children and privacy on the Internet. Highlights: objective; learning outcomes; preparation and materials; the lesson; guided…

Describes an engaging activity for primary-grade students that encourages students to talk, read, write, and share events that are important in their lives by writing a daily news sheet. Describes the daily news process, which encourages students to share during whole-group community time and to work independently later. (SR)

Describes an activity in which students generate questions they ask themselves with regard to reading, becoming aware of their own inner dialog and thus of what they can do to be successful and what they unwittingly do to inhibit their own success. (SR)

Offers Home Literacy Ideas--practical suggestions that involve children in home literacy. Discusses classroom activities and ideas for supporting literacy at home. (SR)

Illustrates the use of drama as a form of literary response. Suggests that drama allows students to develop and exhibit a range of skills and to demonstrate their literary understandings in "unschooled" ways. Suggests that Howard Gardner's work on multiple intelligences demonstrates that students may not be developing understandings because they…

Explores using Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences for folklore analysis. States that when listening to folktales, linguistic intelligence was used, as opposed to drawing pictures of the stories, which used spatial intelligence. Provides some ideas on how to bring folklore studies and the use of multiple intelligences into the classroom. (PA)

Examines the use of music as a springboard for writing. Provides an explanation of how basic writing students can use music-writing activities to discover meaningful topics and ideas, to develop specific supporting details, and to understand the connections between purpose and audience. (RS)

Reviews alternative literacy activities that have a pictorial basis for learning and that may be suitable for use with children with disabilities or learning problems. Notes that alternative literacy activities can be adapted to complement the speech and language programs developed to assist learners with disabilities. (MDM)

Preschool and elementary school children can participate in pleasurable and worthwhile language experiences through the use of rhythmic group chants. Teachers can select contemporary poems, nursery rhymes, or have children make up their own chants. Provides examples of group chants and sources for chants, rhymes, and poems. (MDM)

Examines gender-related patterns of behavior in the second-language classroom and argues that these patterns dovetail with all the other dynamics of language behavior. The article concludes that drawing on the theoretical foundations of frames theory will ensure that research into gender-related patterns of classroom discourse will reflect the…