In this article, Elizabeth Marshall and Kelleen Toohey use critical discourse analysis to examine educators' efforts to incorporate funds of knowledge from the communities and families of Punjabi Sikh students in a Canadian elementary school. Using MP3 players, students first recorded and then translated their grandparents' stories of life in…

The optimal school learning environment for gifted students is one where scholastic rigor is the standard. This rigor is needed both to stimulate the students intellectually and enhance their academic growth. The integration of critical thinking skills into the daily content and lessons is essential for achieving this rigor. This infusion, along…

Power Teaching weaves four factors into a seamless whole: standards, teaching thinking, research based strategies, and critical inquiry. As a prototype in its first year of development with an urban fifth grade class, the power teaching model connects selected district standards, thinking routines from Harvard University Project Zero Research…

The author presents an instrumental case study from an ethnographic research that examined how George, a student in one diverse fifth grade classroom, participated in a series of drama engagements to respond and construct meaning from the picture book "Friends from the other side/Amigos del otro lado" by G. Anzaldua (Children's Books Press,…

Until recently, little scholarly attention has been paid to the art found in children's books. This study describes a project with a fifth grade class in an effort to increase their ability to critique book illustrations. Ten slides from picture books were shown to one experimental and one control group. Students were asked to critique the…

Maintains that philosophical aesthetics must be an integral part of art education. Examines existing methods and materials for teaching philosophy to children from the Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children (New Jersey). Describes a sample unit showing philosophical aesthetics in action in a fifth grade class. (KM)

Describes the efforts of one elementary art class to move beyond the limits of formalism when examining and discussing art. Guided by the teacher, the class attempted a critical deconstruction of the work of Edgar Degas focusing on his depiction of working class women. Includes three reproductions of Degas works. (MJP)

Explores the evolution of postmodernism and the many differences between modernism and postmodernism. Describes two strategies (authentic instruction and discipline-based instruction) for structuring a postmodern curriculum. Highlights an activity that helped fifth-grade students learn about postmodern art and real-world issues by studying the…

This article describes Project Athena, a Javits program funded by the U.S. Department of Education and developed through the Center for Gifted Education at the College of William and Mary. Project Athena seeks to find ways to help impoverished children develop advanced skills in reading comprehension, literary analysis, and persuasive writing. Its…