The National Center for Leadership in Intensive Intervention (NCLII), a consortium funded by the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), prepares special education leaders to become experts in research on intensive intervention for students with disabilities who have persistent and severe academic (e.g., reading and math) and behavioral…

The article discusses motivating gifted children to take greater enjoyment and interest in literature and composition through inspiration from in person and mixed media exposure to authors of children's books. Focus is mainly on the "Profiles in Literature" series of videotaped interviews with authors, distributed by Temple University. (DLS)

Reports on a study of student motivation and its relationship to performance. The findings were not definitive but do point to a relationship between motivation and achievement.(MD)

E. Deci's cognitive evaluation theory, which suggests that external rewards undermine intrinsic interest in an activity, is applied to the decline of instrinsic motivation in gifted students. Implications for feedback, rewards, and teacher role are noted. (CL)

Examines methods of injecting creativity into the business education class: motivating the student, explaining basic principles, and supervising a practice session. (CT)

Describes motivational tool to help students with mild disabilities master basic math facts by providing a concrete visual indicator of progress (a "trip" across the United States). Use of the program with 20 mildly disabled elementary students found student enthusiasm high, increased mathematics knowledge (from 22 to 87 percent), and increased…

Twelve books are recommended for use with gifted children to attract their love for learning, adventure, and fantasy. Brief reviews and illustrations describe recent books in such subjects as architecture, authorship, creative writing, language, art, and parody. (DB)

Provides guidelines for helping a high school newspaper staff produce a special spring issue that is more attractive and impressive than the regular newspaper as a means of providing a challenge to staff members and renewing their enthusiasm for their work. (GT)

Appropriate regular physical activity produces significant health benefits. Physical education can promote such activity, but for lifetime fitness, people must move to higher-order objectives, such as establishing personal exercise programs. Ways physical educators can motivate students to enjoy a lifetime of fitness are presented. (MT)

The article is designed to help parents and teachers understand the nature and causes of underachievement and to show them how to work more effectively with underachieving gifted students. Guidelines focus on ways to share problem solving. (Author/CL)

Tutoring teenagers is as much about building self confidence as teaching skills. This paper states that teenagers who have disengaged from reading probably had difficulty learning to read in the primary grades. According to most research, at this critical age, they missed the pleasure of getting lost in a story or discovering new information in…

This guide describes an instructional technique, Power Card Strategy, that provides a visual aid to assist students with Asperger syndrome and autism in making sense of social situations, routines, the meaning of language, and the hidden curriculum of the classroom. Power Card Strategy makes use of the intense special interests characteristic of…

Reviews the literature concerning the advantages and uses of simulation games as a mode of instruction. Offers guidelines on developing such games for classroom use. Concludes that simulation games can increase student motivation, retention, and development of social skills. (Author/WD)

Describes program model for independent study courses for students of German at Cleveland State University, emphasizing how to keep students motivated without regularly scheduled class and how to reduce the amount of time required to administer the program. Believes courses cannot replace regular courses but can help in situations where enrollment…

Describes "two-point system: which rewards students for having read assigned material before class, but does not penalize those who have not. At the beginning of class, students critique in writing the reading assignment. For each successful critique they receive two points on their next exam. (KC)