Results of a recent study indicate that, when students write about relevant, personal experiences prior to reading a literary text, their understanding and engagement in the text are significantly improved. Recommends autobiographical writing before a reading assignment. (22 references) (MLF)

One elementary and two secondary teachers from the Roeper School (Michigan) for gifted students present instructional dilemmas that exemplify the complex nature of teaching. Each case is followed by expert commentaries from within and outside the field of gifted education. Cases address learning from a master teacher, the student with a poor…

Everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing on the morning of September 11, 2001. Everyone has a personal story from that day, and many of those personal stories took place in classrooms all across America. The reality of the terrorist attacks is difficult for adults to comprehend, yet it is the job of teachers to help students of…

This document, written in the first person, describes the history and feelings of a woman who was functionally illiterate as an adult but who, having learned to read, is now a student at Rancho Santiago Community College District in Orange, California. This "open letter" urges teachers to support and encourage students with similar problems,…

Describes a writing exercise useful for students who have already shown some facility in writing about personal experiences and that emphasizes the narrowing of scope and time in a reminiscence and developing it with detail in order to make it more interesting for others. (HTH)

An excellent way to teach history is by focusing on the lives of individual historical figures. History is the story of living persons, who for good or ill have made history as it is. To understand history, students must learn about the men and women who shaped events. (RM)

This book presents the narrative of one educator's first year as a high school teacher. The teacher was a former lawyer who returned to college to get his teaching certification. The book uses the teacher's reflections from the journal that he kept throughout the school year. It is divided into weeks. It begins with a chapter about the day before…

"Fantasia-Land" is a text composed by a young woman in a secondary school in Dresden that recounts changes in Germany in the past two years. The text is followed by two essays written in response to it by second-semester German students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. (Author/LB)

The author of this article describes why, while as a student in the Northeastern University teacher preparation program, she chose not to become a teacher in the public schools. She felt that her philosophy of education, stemming from the concept of the person-centered classroom as espoused by Carl Rogers and Jerome Freiberg in "Freedom to…

This article describes how anecdotal teaching can relate classroom material more effectively than lecture presentations. Personalizing the lesson engages students and increases retention.

Textbooks can only provide a glimpse into the challenging profession of caring for young children. Stories generate new levels of personal understanding for differing perspectives in life, increasing teachers' ability to be of service as professionals in this field. In this article, the author discusses how storytelling can be a key to effective…

Nine women whose lives have contributed to West Virginia history are profiled in these collected essays. These women have made significant contributions to history as: midwife, physician, journalist, photographer, educator, musician, civic activist, and social reformer. The stereotypical image of a powerless, barefooted, uneducated girl is proven…

This collection of essays chronicles the contributions of 14 West Virginia women active in individual and group endeavors from 1824 to the present. Because the achievements of these women are absent from previous histories of West Virginia, their stories constitute missing chapters in the state's history. Some of these women made contributions in…

This book for teachers, administrators, and teacher educators suggests that teachers' stories are central to the type of inquiry and reflection that lead to professional development and personal insight. The book contends that it is through careful examination of real-life classroom experiences that teachers explore the complexities of what it…

Strengths-based social work practice has become a major approach to working with clients. The social constructivist perspective is a foundation of this approach. Narrative treatment is one form of strengths-based practice arising from a social constructive perspective. The demands of time and material needing to be covered in the social work…