History education rests at the junction between historical content, disciplinary literacy, and educational psychology. To understand the sources and strategies that facilitate historical thinking, more inquiries are needed. How do students respond to different historical topics, texts, and tasks? Which sources and strategies best facilitate…

Even though the existence and importance of inner forms of sign-making are acknowledged in social-semiotic educational research, their contours have, none the less, yet to be charted in a systematic way. This article uses a combination of social-semiotic and pragmatist approaches to bring into focus some characteristics of pupils' inner…

This study focused on understanding the impact of incorporating digital reader response into a middle school literature class. Through interviews and the use of artifacts, a classroom teacher documented how altering the way students wrote about their readings shaped the quality and quantity of their writing. Outcomes reveal that blogging during…

In English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms, where acquisition of English is the ultimate goal, one of the main tasks for the teacher is to provide students with language input and activities that best aid them in their learning process. As different researchers have reported, including poetry-based activities in the EFL classroom is…

Over the last decade there has been an increased focus on high-stakes standardized tests in reading and math. Social studies has been devalued in the classroom as many teachers and administrators focus their attention on reading and math instruction to avoid the punitive consequences of the No Child Left Behind Act. (2001). Based on this…

In this article, the author describes her multimodal teaching practices in her "Adolescent Literacy Methods" course at a graduate university in the United States. By doing so, she highlights content teacher's understanding and use of various multimodal texts to effectively teach adolescents inside the classroom. In lieu of this, she raises…

Picturebook readalouds have been promoted as a rich resource for strengthening literacy development in young children and discussions of picturebooks have become a common--if threatened--practice in the primary grades. One subset of the diverse body of children's literature teachers can draw from is picturebooks with sparse verbal text. Such…

In this article, the author explains why he considers "Animal Dreams" by Barbara Kingsolver, "Ceremony" by Leslie Marmon Silko, and "The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan as the most desirable books for students. He cites that several questions guide him in selecting these books. These questions include the following: (1) Why recommend certain texts to…

This document is a compilation of the four issues in the 23rd volume of "Classroom Notes Plus." Each issue of "Classroom Notes Plus" contains descriptions of original, unpublished teaching practices, and of adapted ideas. The August 2005 (v23 n1) issue includes: Sharing Responses to Literature via Exit Slips (Barb Wagner); Letting Learners Teach…