Life-story mapping is a technique for exploring personal identity and family history within the context of human geography. Site-specific autobiography develops a sense of how place influences identity. (SK)

Recognizing geometric shapes and noting their special properties are important steps in learning geometry. Offers the use of geoboards and emphasizes that much of what teachers want students to learn about squares, rectangles, and trapezoids can be accomplished with geoboard figures. Presents activities on quadrilaterals using geoboards. (ASK)

Discusses characters in books that are portrayed as oddball, or different from their peers, and are therefore misunderstood and often mistreated and ostracized. Suggests activities for elementary and middle school students based on books and films that include oddball characters. (LRW)

This study asked 95 beginning and 116 experienced elementary teachers in Singapore to rate the usefulness of 33 learning activities for fostering creativity. Three clusters were identified. About two thirds of the experienced teachers' and one fifth of the beginning teachers' ratings indicated little differentiated preference among learning…

This article provides a teaching guide to the effective use of biographies and autobiographies with gifted students. Fifteen learning activities are suggested such as conducting an eminent people news conference, creating a biography collage, writing a fictionalized biography, and completing a family tree. (Contains three references and a reading…

Examples of learning activities are provided to parents of gifted preschoolers in the areas of mathematics, art, and social and moral development. (DB)

Explores how child care providers can use outdoor activities to enhance young children's cognitive, social, emotional, and motor development. Discusses surveying the outdoor play space, using outdoor prop boxes, planting a garden, and reflecting on outdoor experiences after moving indoors. Includes list of sample outdoor play materials and sample…

From ratings of children's learning activities by 209 elementary teachers in Singapore, four factors emerged: conventional activities, motivational activities, student-directed activities that foster independence and collaboration, and teacher-directed group activities. Beginning teachers preferred motivational activities. The current environment…

This paper describes how meaning potentials were constructed in the literacy event known as Morning Message, an activity in which a 4th grade teacher and students jointly constructed a written text around the experiences of one student. Emphasis is on how meaning was orchestrated and scaffolded by the teacher's conversational moves and on how…

Describes an activity for middle school learners of French called "body parties, or giant body part people. It is an arts and crafts project that students do mostly at home. The activity will help students understand and manipulate body part vocabulary. (Author/VWL)

Addresses the theme of redemption and examines characters who try to make things right in literature and film. Reviews six books and two films and suggests creative activities for middle school students that tie in with the works cited. (LRW)

Discusses ways that authors use time as it relates to the setting or time period, and to reveal changes throughout the story. Provides activities for elementary school students to help them understand how authors show time and changes, includes a worksheet to show examples of time relationships, and suggests assessment possibilities. (LRW)

Describes a study used to assess student outcomes in general education science courses using different learning environments. There was no significant difference found in achievement in the different learning environments. Television and web students reported greater levels of interaction with the instructor and were more likely to report…

Explains how the concept of genre is useful for investigating similarities among the types of language produced in computer-assisted language learning (CALL) activities. Analysis shows that apparent differences in the example CALL texts are not significant. Three relevant levels of analysis for CALL activities are described. (Contains 25…

Discusses the value of practical life activities for building a firm foundation for future learning. Emphasizes the importance of movement, the growth of concentration, refinement of coordination, development of independence, and the support of mental order. Maintains that practical life activities should be introduced early, and provides a…