A large and growing body of research supports the view that the small-group learning structure can be an effective tool to enhance student performance and encourage innovative problem solving. This paper explains in detail how the framework of the popular television reality show Survivor has been adapted to form a vehicle for a college level group…

Our mission of capstone computing courses for the past ten years has been to offer students experience with the development of real-world information technology projects. This experience has included both the hard and soft skills required for the work they could expect as industrial practitioners. Hard skills entail extending one's knowledge…

In basic writing classrooms and scholarship, reading too often remains invisible; neither research nor established practice provides tangible activities to support reading and connect it to writing. This article documents a search for structured, scaffolded, low-stakes reading activities, a search that moves off the college campus and into the…

At Portledge School in Locust Valley, New York, ninth graders in their upper school study art history for one semester. The visual arts department has created a vigorous new syllabus culminating in an hour-long mock art auction. The department selects several art movements (e.g., Post-Impressionism, Cubism, Abstract Expressionism, Social Realism,…

Teens have issues! They talk about suicide and war. They experiment with drugs, drinking and smoking. Their lives may have been touched by abuse, gangs, or guns. Young people worry about these issues and many others as they work out their emerging identities and race toward their futures. This article discusses how the teachers in Voyager House…

This article addresses the challenges of supporting students' engagement with complex, challenging texts. How do teachers sustain students' interactions with texts that many see as irrelevant to their lives? How do they provide space to name and challenge the simplistic or problematic portrayals of cultures and communities often found in the texts…

Discusses the importance of using document-based instruction in social studies at the elementary school level. Describes an exercise used with preservice teachers that can train them to use this technique in their own classrooms. Lists the documents needed and the questions to ask during the activity. (CMK)

Describes services, programs, and funding for the various senior centers in Frankin County, New York, which has a predominately rural, low-income population. Services include bus transportation, nutrition programs, health and financial assistance, and social events. (MF)