Looking for a "habanero" (extremely hot) lesson to engage first-year Spanish language students in an in-depth study of Spanish-speaking countries? This article offers an overview of how the authors used 21st-century tools to get students excited about the not-so-new assignment of reporting on the people and culture of another country. Chances are,…

Just-in-Time Teaching (JiTT) methodology uses Web-based tools to gather student responses to questions on preclass reading assignments. However, the technological requirements of JiTT and the content-specific nature of the questions may prevent some instructors from implementing it. Our own JiTT implementation uses publicly and freely available…

This mixed methods study combining a single-subject experimental design with an embedded case study focuses on the impact of a visual treatment on the handwritten and typed output of a struggling male writer during his 5th through 7th grades who has undergone a longitudinal remedial phase of two and a half years creating text-only material as well…

Outlines the many benefits of humor. Describes a reading and writing strategy to help at-risk college students reduce stress, appreciate the humor in many areas of college life, and use reading and writing about humorous college situations as a tool for developing critical thinking. Describes an application of the strategy. (SR)

Describes story ladders, a technique used to illustrate the development of story and to act as a catalyst for writing. (SR)

This article describes how teachers welcome a diminutive paper doll with outspread arms, bulbous cheeks, and exciting stories to share into their fold to help impart lessons both local and global. Often folded or laminated for protection and accompanied by photographs, the paper doll is part of the international mini-phenomenon known as Flat…

Although arguments about the personal essay in the writing classroom have been taking place since before composition studies even existed as an academic field, the author thinks that in light of a renewed interest in autobiographical writing in the academy and in popular culture, it is important to take another look at this type of writing.…

The practice conditions within dance training have remained essentially unchanged for decades. Those conditions appear to be based largely on a "culture of rigor," a philosophy of which implies that continuous practice is the most beneficial way to improve (motor) skills. Current evidence in motor learning supports the concept of "distributed…

College students (N = 151) completed three in-class mathematics assignments that varied with respect to the order of short, medium, and long multiplication problems, including a short-to-long order, a long-to-short order, and a random order. Problem order within assignments did not significantly affect work accuracy, completion time, or assignment…

The author examined the way students enrolled in the Introductory Human Geography course at Kansas State University described their hometowns using the location theme of geography. Participants completed this task as a required take-home assignment. Because the majority of students were from Kansas, the author presents results from locations of…

Calibrated Peer Review[TM] (CPR) is a web-based instructional tool that encourages "writing gain for students" without adding "grading pain for the instructor!" The use of CPR provides students frequent opportunities to hone both writing as well as peer review skills in a guided environment. And once an assignment is authored, instructors have…

A content analysis of multicultural counseling syllabi from the Council on Rehabilitation Education (CORE) accredited programs was conducted. Using CORE accreditation standards that apply to Social and Cultural Diversity knowledge and outcome areas (Section C.2) and Middleton et al. (2000) proposed multicultural competencies and standards for…

Finding relevant digital images to create presentation boards requires advanced search skills. This article describes a course assignment involving a technique designed to develop students' literacy skills with respect to locating images of desired quality and content from Internet databases. The assignment was applied in a collegiate apparel…

Students come to the classroom with life experience that may reinforce stigmatization of those who struggle with addiction. Educators must address this dynamic directly if addiction practitioners are to move beyond their personal experiences and come to understand the neuroscience of addiction, evidence-based practices, and the human potential for…

We conducted an experimental analysis of children's relative problem-completion rates across two workstations under conditions of equal (Experiment 1) and unequal (Experiment 2) problem difficulty. Results were described using the generalized matching equation and were evaluated for degree of schedule versus stimulus control. Experiment 1 involved…