The change needed in urban music education not only relates to the idea that music should be at the center of the curriculum; rather, it is that culturally relevant music should be a creative force at the center of reform in urban education. Teaching Music in the Urban Classroom: A Guide to Survival, Success, and Reform is the start of a…

Describes a service learning program with a focus on literacy called the Student Literacy Corps. Describes how urban elementary school children, college students, professors, administrators, and community members worked, shared, and learned together. Includes a sample lesson. (SR)

Provides listings of general and specific recommendations that can be used by individual teachers, curriculum specialists, and school districts wishing to develop Science-Technology-Society materials adaptable to the needs of urban students. (RT)

Describes a course that integrates U.S. literature and history around key social issues to sensitize students to the need for a more just society and a higher quality of life for all citizens. Discusses the poetry unit that focused on contemporary U.S. poets of color, the teaching methods, and examples of the students' poetry. (PRA)

This guide provides teachers with activities that can initiate an awareness of the New York city-wide traffic safety campaign and reinforce safety education. It contains the following: (1) background information on safety rules for teachers; (2) curriculum topics that can include traffic safety issues; (3) class- and school-wide activities for…

Included in this module are four activities dealing with issues of solid waste disposal relative to urban concerns. Included activities are: (1) sources and composition of solid waste; (2) a "garbage game"; (3) disposal options for solid waste; and (4) an example county plan for solid waste disposal. Also included are an overview, teacher…

Replete with lessons for educators, this book reports in a personal way on a middle school classroom study undertaken by a teacher researcher that was to last 1 year but ended up lasting 6 years. The book contains the social and cultural forces that influence adolescents' literacy development--for instance, taking a hard look at the race and…

Included in this model are five activities dealing with air quality and sources of air pollution in the urban environment. Activities included are: (1) the nature of the atmosphere; (2) discussion of major pollutants; (3) measuring air quality; (4) inversions; and (5) pollution control. Also included are an overview, teacher background…

Argues that teaching video production techniques in high-school English classes achieves the goals of language arts proficiency, media literacy, and student self-realization. Discusses preproduction; information search; script and storyboard; writing activities; oral communication activities; teamwork; aesthetic judgment; media literacy; affective…

This book focuses on research conducted in the last 20 years that shows what urban teachers can do to add new knowledge and skills to their repertoire of teaching so that students can increase their own achievement. Dedicated to the idea that all children can learn, it provides hundreds of practical educational strategies. Some approaches that are…

Describes a partnership between the Joint Activities Program and an inner-city school that provides students with an enriched science learning experience. The program's educational beliefs, assumptions, and their implications are discussed. Also included in the article are brief descriptions of some the science experiences and learning of the…

Most people think of nature in the city as parks and zoos and dandelions pushing up through cracks in the sidewalk, but it is also asphalt streets, granite office buildings and mazes of underground pipes and cables. The materials of which the streets and buildings are constructed began as prehistoric jungles and ancient mountains. The systems that…

Students Asking Questions (SAQ) has proved to be a simple, effective method for teaching urban third grade students to generate literal, inferential, and critical questions from their readings of instructional materials. Teachers using the SAQ method prepare students for reading a selection from a basal reader by offering one literal, one…

Compiled in this curriculum program are a number of poems, stories, classroom activities, songs and illustrations dealing with various aspects of a multiethnic urban environment in Canada. Designed to familiarize students with the diverse urban population, differences and similarities among individuals, communities, and families of different…

The subject of this panel presentation was a collaborative effort to improve writing instruction around the state of Kentucky, which resulted in the funding of several National Writing Project sites, regional workshops, and a competitive grants program to encourage middle and high school classroom teachers to develop innovative writing projects in…