The minute students first step into any classroom, they begin assessing the environment, the teacher, and one another for clues about what to expect in the upcoming school year. Yet what do they usually encounter the first day? A teacher who's busy assigning seats, reviewing rules, and assessing various skills. However, it is during this time that…

A hands-on game based upon principles of oil accumulation and drilling was highly effective at generating enthusiasm toward the geosciences in urban youth from underrepresented minority groups in Newark, NJ. Participating 9th-grade high school students showed little interest in the geosciences prior to participating in the oil game, even if they…

In this essay, veteran high school teacher Cherish R. Skinker recounts how she connected with hard-to-reach, struggling students in her 9th grade English classes. In a supportive classroom environment, Skinker's students explored the year-long theme of "a hero's journey" through texts like "The Odyssey" and "Romeo and…

Engaging 9th grade students in contemporary reality-show parodies based on "Great Expectations," the author helps students explore the intricacies of Charles Dickens's novel. In "Stay Tuned for Our Next Episode: Teaching 'Great Expectations' in Installments," the author highlighted the benefits of teaching "Great Expectations" in installments, as…

This activity targets students' misconceptions about embryonic and adult stem cells while also addressing an important grades 9-12 science content standard. The authors designed the activity to provide students an opportunity to explore differences between embryonic and adult stem cells prior to formal explanation. The overarching goal of this…

By far, the tastiest technology learning activity that the author's students work on is the development of the design of a chocolate candy bar. This article describes how the author implemented the candy bar activity. The activity gives students an opportunity to design a product and to take it from concept through to production.

Harnessing insights from Brophy's (1999, 2008, 2010) notion of scaffolding students' appreciation of learning, this article tackles challenges to student engagement, especially among reluctant students, by exploring two classroom settings in which students' valuing of school content and activities supported their engagement and achievement. The…

Presents the author's experiences as a kind of case study of what it looks and sounds like when "doing" Shakespeare is in the foreground of instruction and "play" is the thing that makes that happen. Discusses guidelines and suggestions for putting a play together. (SG)

Throughout the 2003 school year, Christopher Leahey's ninth grade global history students followed the media's coverage of the escalating crisis between the United States and Iraq. In early March of that year, as the media's coverage intensified, students brought a multitude of questions and concerns into the classroom. Rather than simply answer…

Presents a dialog among three English teachers concerning teaching performance poetry to ninth graders. (RS)

Describes the theoretical foundations, classroom context, and activities of a multicultural literature study (based on S. F. Staples'"Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind") in a ninth-grade English language arts classroom. Shares understanding and philosophy of multicultural literature and the merits for including it in classrooms as an integral part of…

Describes an assignment in which ninth graders created a storybook or a textbook for children in grades 4-6 that would link 4 core subjects: math, English, science, and anthropology. (SR)

Recounts the details of a teacher's feelings about leaving her class to go on jury duty. Tells how she related her jury experiences to the class and had the students interpret information from a short story in a mock courtroom presentation. (RL)

Considers how a teacher can help students become avid readers. Describes how cultivating a culture of reading in ninth-grade English has increased student interest and renewed the author's teaching. Suggests that all students are readers, but that the conditions of reading change from person to person. (SG)

Investigates whether parent participation could improve student achievement in one of the author's ninth-grade sheltered English classes. Describes how parents wrote essays with their children, participated in a goal-setting conference, and took part in a literary correspondence discussing "Romeo and Juliet." Discusses the benefits for the…