Presents practical ideas for classroom use in literacy education, including a schoolwide reading incentive program; a center to publish students' work; a way to use the calendar to improve reading; and a method for using children's oral language patterns (such as jump rope rhymes) to teach reading skills and strategies. (PRA)

Describes the approach used with high school advanced placement English classes to a nature-writing project based on the work of Henry David Thoreau and Annie Dillard. (SR)

Describes an assignment for a business communication class in which students use a "company research" worksheet to gather information on a company that they would like to work for in the future. (SR)

Describes a successful unit of study on poetry in a fifth grade class that ended with students each writing a sonnet as a final project. (SR)

A film appreciation exercise for use in the foreign language class is outlined. The questions involve analysis of viewer reactions, film characteristics, visual and aural production specifications, and other technical aspects of the film. (MSE)

An activity in a college statistics class had students go to a field of grass and clover and use a variety of estimation, probability, sampling, distribution, and calculation techniques for determining the number of flowers in the field. The activity focused on the discovery process, encouraged abstract reasoning, and was pleasurable. (MSE)

This article describes how to structure a unit on historical fiction around a creative arts center that allows students to explore and express themes they read about. Included are short descriptions of books; suggested materials for a creative arts center; and related activities in music, art, drama, and creative writing. (IAH)

Describes a study in which drama and sign language were used in a multisensory approach to language learning to tap the physical, kinesthetic, and visual abilities of four-year-old Head Start children. Finds that the teacher-directed activities resulted in significantly higher scores for children in the treatment group. (PRA)

Outlines a method for teaching kindergarten students to model and write journal entries. Discusses also responding to the entries, assessment, the writing environment, and parent involvement. (PRA)

Offers an approach for integrating reading and writing through literature study. Discusses preparing the classroom environment, prereading activities, sustained silent reading, minilessons for related skills, enrichment, and a follow-up activity. (PRA)

When teachers discuss different types of heroes in the classroom, they allow their students to meet powerful new role models. The article discusses how teachers can get students thinking about what makes a hero and in the process, teach them about historical figures, social issues, and current events. (SM)

Describes a semester-long project for a first-year writing class in which students work collaboratively to research an artist as a person, write an essay as a monologue, and present the monologue as a one-person play to the class. (SR)

Describes a process for presenting and learning new vocabulary in middle-grade classrooms that focuses on context, questions involving interpretation, and using the word. (SR)

Describes a long-term science study project on natural disasters and phenomena in a second-grade classroom in which students had the major responsibility to plan, choose, inquire, and problem solve as they chose topics, browsed and read, planned and made murals, wrote and drew in their journals, and designed dramas which mixed story and…

An article about the Louvre museum includes a map and basic information about building construction, hours and other visitor information, a brief history of the museum, an interview with the director, Michel Laclotte, and a number of art and language exercises focusing on the use of light in painting. (MSE)