Discusses the difficulty children with learning disabilities have in making friends and describes a strategy for incorporating children's literature into teaching friendship skills. A practice lesson that used this strategy with five elementary children with disabilities is described and found to be effective in promoting friendship skills. (CR)

Discusses using scripted lessons to increase the academic information teachers give to students with emotional or behavior disorders before they ask the students to perform tasks that require the information. The results from a study that successfully used written scripts to decrease undesirable student behaviors are reviewed. (CR)

Describes a librarian/teacher coplanned fourth-grade unit at Central Elementary School (Indianapolis, Indiana). The lesson focused on wolves and pack behavior and incorporated the tale of the Big Bad Wolf and the Three Little Pigs to teach the media literacy concepts of point of view, message, stereotype, and bias. Sample worksheets are included.…

Summarizes the events leading up to and the investigation that followed the Watergate break-in. Presents a lesson plan using primary documents that allows students to explore the workings of congressional investigations, the key figures in the scandal, and the arguments of the different participants. Includes copies of the documents. (DSK)

Advocates concept-related vocabulary instruction, in which students link individual words with larger literature concepts. Outlines four steps to creating a concept-related vocabulary lesson. Offers examples of how concept-related vocabulary lessons can be conducted while reading, before reading, and after reading. Outlines web, weave, and…

Uses the "ABCs" of lesson planning so teachers can put the theory of active learning into practice and make learning more meaningful for their students. Concludes that teachers can make reading and learning more meaningful for their students by tying together the three themes of building student interest through attention grabbers, teaching the…

Describes a teacher's method of motivating her sixth- and seventh-grade students to become interested in interview pieces with authors. Provides a worksheet that encourages student engagement with the interview questions. (TB)

Describes a teaching technique that can be used to open a discussion about suicide. The life events of a fictional individual are mapped on a timeline and examined with the class, after which the instructor informs the students that the person committed suicide at a young age. Student reaction is usually quite strong. (MDM)

This article proposes teaching strategies and an instructional format to make traditional secondary physical education classes more fitness oriented. Suggestions address the preclass activity, fitness lectures, skill development, integration game activities, playing of traditional games, fitness activities, and closure activities. Sample week…

The planning process is essential when implementing a Big6 Skills instruction program. First, identify what actually occurs in the classroom and school; next, analyze the data and create plans. A completed Skills by Unit Matrix (sample included) can be used both as a planning tool and as documentation of what took place. (Author/AEF)

Each designer contributing to this special issue was asked to prepare an introductory lesson on the physics of motion aimed at eighth to eleventh graders. This article presents a brief description of how a detailed physics content was researched, edited, and refined by subject-matter experts, and then ultimately presented to the instructional…

This instructional design sought to create an easily graspable application of physics principles. It took an engineering slant on the content, asking students to investigate physics by attempting to increase the productivity of a "Splam-canning" plant. Design strategies are outlined for six science principles and eight product utilization…

Summarizes a discussion by the authors of this special issue that took place after the five instructional designers created lesson plans for the same design task. Highlights include the specified content's convergent effect on the designs; design philosophies; things that surprised the designers; and their favorable responses. (AEF)

Presents a lesson on the scale of the solar system that focuses on measurement, exponential notation, proportionality, and ratios. (Contains 17 references.) (Author/ASK)

Argues that the concentration on aims as a central tenet of classroom observation for teacher development is tied to Newtonian discourses that--despite the rival claims of the "new" science of chaos and complexity--still dominate the world of English language teaching. Outlines the main ideas behind these theories and relates them to second…