Reviews Web sites for current events news that are appropriate for students of various ages. Discusses the possibilities for second language learning and curriculum connections and lists television sites, news magazines, classroom magazines, newspapers, and lesson plans. (LRW)

Points out the potential of biology for implementing media reports as primary literature and presents an example of this approach using the topic "corn transformed with bacterial genes that encode insecticidal Bt toxins and public concerns over its potential impact on human health and the environment". (Contains 22 references.) (YDS)

Two special educators share their experiences in developing standards-based lessons to help students manage their own Individualized Education Programs. They describe strategies used to begin the process, provide a sample unit lesson plan, and show how a typical 50-minute class period could be structured to incorporate self-determination skills.…

Discusses an approach to teaching heterogeneous English-as-a-Second/Foreign-Language classes. Draws on classroom research data to describe the features of a success-building lesson context. (Author/VWL)

Describes a lesson plan designed for first- through fifth-grade students in which they made their own impressionist-style artworks. Explains that the lesson was introduced with a discussion on Claude Monet, his many art prints, and the impressionist genre. Explores the differences between things of nature and man-made objects. Notes materials and…

Encourages readers to look at traditional translation activities in a positive and innovative light. A detailed lesson plan is offered, showing how back translation can be exploited with a monolingual class, whether or not the teacher speaks the students' mother tongue. (Author/VWL)

Shows how a common demonstration that consists of slowly heating sulfur powder in a test tube to illustrate sulfur's allotropic modifications can convince students of conclusions about the moon Io which they often find surprising. Describes the demonstration in full. (Author/MM)

Prospective secondary mathematics teachers lack images of "reformed" teaching that engage students in experimenting, analyzing, conjecturing, justifying, and making connections. The development and investigation of experiences fostering reform-oriented teaching are needed. This study investigated microteaching lesson study (MLS), an experience…

School to Career is part of a national initiative to help students make connections between the content, skills, and concepts they are learning in the classroom and careers in the real world. School-to-career practices add relevance to the elementary school curriculum and promote engagement in learning. A key feature of many school-to-career…

For several years, advocacy groups have recognized the need to strengthen financial education in the K-12 schools. Current statistics support their concerns. Financial illiteracy in the United States is astoundingly high. From 1992 to 2000, disposable personal income for Americans rose by 47 percent, but personal spending rose by 61 percent. In…

This article describes a second-grade teacher's attempt to differentiate spelling instruction according to student achievement levels. The article begins by reviewing developmental spelling theory, particularly the stages that relate to first- and second-grade reader/writers. Following is a detailed description of the classroom spelling program,…

This study examined the development of a mathematics teacher's proficiency in managing whole-class discussion in the context of an inquiry-based classroom. We analysed three lessons taught with the same class by a teacher-researcher. The first and second lessons were 10 months apart, the second and third lessons were 6 months apart. For each of…

This lesson helps participants examine their own attitudes and feelings about being faced with an unplanned pregnancy and understand the difficult choices involved when women need to make a decision about unplanned pregnancy. The lesson uses brainstorming, discussion, an examination of "case studies," and role-playing to help participants develop…

The term "sexual health" is often used in sexuality education without any concrete, operational definition, and students are left to ascertain the meaning for themselves. In the absence of a clear definition, students may adopt diverse or narrow understandings of this vague term, without learning the full scope of everything that sexual health…

If one were to search for classroom strategies for English Language Learners (ELLs), it would not take much time to find many different types of activities that are all useful with ELLs. Additionally, if one were to search for social studies strategies to use with native English speakers, he or she would have little difficulty in finding a variety…